


Soulenemies

by stormy1990



Category: SixTONES (Band)
Genre: AU, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:56:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27711011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormy1990/pseuds/stormy1990
Summary: In ancient times when their land had been about to collapse into an imbalance led by darkness and swallowing the light until only a small glimpse of hope was left, exactly that small light entrusted itself to the humans, gifting them with the power to overcome the darkness and restore balance.A clan of light had been established in those times, their members taking the oath to protect their country from the dark forces. Unfortunately the race of the humans wasn’t without darkness themselves and soon their own inner demons started corrupting them and their noble motives turned into the arrogant hunt for power, dividing the clan’s members and bringing a battle of destruction.Disappointed in the humans the light withdrew itself even from the remaining fighters of the light and left the humans to their mortal problems. Watching from afar over centuries without any change the light decided to give the two clans a final challenge, which would either destroy them or unite them once more.
Relationships: Kyomoto Taiga/Matsumura Hokuto
Comments: 34
Kudos: 50





	1. destructive connection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blankcamellia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blankcamellia/gifts).



> This was supposed to be a 3K exchange fic, but well as you can see I wasn't able to squeeze the idea into a few K, so here we are with a small monster of a fic^^"
> 
> The idea is very simple, as it was a "soulmate" topic we had for that exchange, so please don't expect too much deep story for this one
> 
> Be prepared for plot holes, spelling and grammar mistakes
> 
> Have fun reading^^/

The arrow rested calmly on the back of his hand, both of his eyes steady on the target. Just before the Mi-clan member could hit a fatal blow on one of his own clan members Taiga released the arrow, hitting the target in the shoulder and making it possible for Shintaro to knock the other one out.

“Nice one,” Shintaro voiced out, but of course Taiga was too far away to hear it as he was hiding on the rocky surface away from the main battle.

His arrows never missed its target, but it also never killed it, because the Rei-clan wasn’t ever going to kill out of desperation or hate. Even several generations later they were living by the oath of protecting humanity without shedding unnecessary blood.

Without losing any time Taiga drew the next arrow out from the quiver on his back. Even this far away he could hear the laughter of one of their enemies as he seemed to enjoy the unnecessary battle. Jesse was up against four people of the Rei-clan, yet he still had the upper hand so Taiga aimed for his leg to give the others an advantage.

Right before he could shoot the arrow though he sensed the presence of someone closing in to him and he turned around his bow now aiming at the enemy right behind him.

“How often did you fail in sneaking up on me by now?” Taiga asked His bowstring still steady pulled back while the other one only shrugged his shoulders, while balancing the throwing knives in his hands.

“Just because I failed until now doesn’t mean I should give up, right?” Juri said with a lopsided smile and for a moment both of them froze in their movements, but they had fought each other too often to take the situation lightly. Behind that playful behavior was a murderous instinct and one mistake could cost Taiga his life.

Luckily he got help when someone dashed towards Juri, taking his focus off Taiga long enough for the other one to shoot. Juri threw one of his throwing knives at the intruder, but then he yelped when Taiga’s arrow hit him his shoulder. When he threw his remaining knife at Taiga it was only for distraction and Taiga didn’t bother to stop the other one from retreating. After all they wouldn’t take hostages, neither would they kill them. All they wanted was them to retreat.

“Are you okay?” Taiga asked his clan member who had barely avoided Juri’s knife and was now keeping it in his hand as he walked up to the older one.

“No harm done, but this time they really go for it,” Kochi said as he joined Taiga at the lookout location while Taiga searched for someone in a pinch.

“Look there is your friend again,” Kochi said teasingly and pointed down at someone who was lifting his sword with heavy blows against their clan members. Taiga growled and pulled his bowstring back once more.

“He is not my friend,” Taiga growled, but Kochi only chuckled.

Taiga took another deep breath and released the arrow just to see it getting caught with the bare hand by his target. Hokuto’s look turned to murderous as he dropped the arrow and peered up to the rocks.

“Mh, then tell me why he is the only one who always avoids your arrows?” Kochi asked.

“Because he is a skillful fighter,” Taiga replied annoyed while getting another arrow, but Hokuto was already getting out of his reach and now he was ready to slaughter all the people on his way, on which Taiga got ready to put his bow aside and pull out his sword.

Hokuto had already found his next victim and he slashed his sword down with such a force that no one would stand a chance against his rage.

“We need to hurry,” Taiga said as he wanted to pass by Kochi, but the other one stopped him on the shoulder with a knowing look.

“Let’s take the shortcut.”

Kochi’s words had a meaning Taiga knew too well, yet he couldn’t complain as Kochi had already shoved him behind a ledge so that they were gone from the eyes of the enemies. The shock wasn’t as big as the first time anymore, but Taiga couldn’t say he was used to seeing his friend lunging out with a knife for him and stabbing him directly into the stomach.

Taiga gasped and bent over before he gave Kochi an annoyed look. “Couldn’t you have aimed for a leg or arm?”

“Sorry, but I fear that wouldn’t stop him anymore as angry as he is,” Kochi said before he pulled the knife out again, making Taiga gasp once more. “And I made sure to stab you in a safe spot, but that means he will have to deal with a pretty bad liver injury.”

Taiga put as much pressure as he could on his wound when he dared to peer around the rock to see Hokuto on the ground, his hand on the opposite side of his stomach and soon Juri and Jesse were there to get him away from his enemies, not that they had aimed to kill him in the first place. For that Kochi would have only needed to stab Taiga into the right side of his chest.

“Perfect, they got scared once more by the sudden attack,” Kochi said as he looked at the Mi-clan retreating.

“Well I would be shocked as well if I got a sudden wound I can’t explain,” Taiga said and while he could still not explain the connection between them it just didn’t feel right.

A few months ago in the middle of a battle Taiga had been wounded on the right shoulder and Kochi had realized that Hokuto had been hurt on the left shoulder at exactly the same time without anyone even attacking him. Not being able to explain what had happened, Kochi had put it to a test in the next battle and had stabbed Taiga into the leg to see if Hokuto would receive the injury and he did!

Of course all of that had led to a fight between Taiga and Kochi in the end, but when Shintaro had heard about that weird connection between them he had taken Kochi’s side and while they didn’t want to risk to let other clan members know for now, there was not much Taiga could say to make them stop using their connection. After all they did it to protect their own people, which didn’t make it easier for Taiga to somehow feel like this wasn’t how their connection was supposed to be used.

***

Lost in his thoughts, Taiga stroke over the new scar on his stomach, one of a lot. All of them shared by Hokuto on the other side of his body.

“Don’t space out,” Shintaro said as he hit Taiga lightly on the shoulder.

“You really think they would dare such a move in the middle of the night? Not even the light of the moon is out tonight,” Taiga said, keeping his eyes down on the gorge. A dangerous territory for both clans, especially at night, because there were a lot of hidden caves and steep cliffs.

“You underestimate their stubbornness,” Kochi said.

“You mean their stupidity?” Shintaro added with a teasing smile, but then Taiga lifted his hand to silence them as he spotted a movement in the depths of the gorge.

“Can you say for sure that it’s them?” Shintaro asked, but Taiga shook his head. He could make out that there were three people, but even for his good eyes it was too dark to make out faces.

The pain came simultaneous with one of the figures in the dark stopping and putting up one hand to his upper arm. Taiga didn’t even have time to react to the pain. All he could do was give Kochi a scolding look after the boy had cut him on the arm.

“Don’t look at me like that, now we know it’s them!” Kochi said before he gave Shintaro a signal and the boy got up, walking over to a setup of huge stones and kicked away a wooden block they had placed to secure it.

The sound of the huge rocks slowly moving broke through the night and when the three clan members in the gorge realized what was going on the rocks were already falling down the cliff towards them. They hurried out of the way of the rocks which would block their way, but it seemed like they weren’t fast enough to avoid them all and when Taiga realized that they would get hit he got up, trying to spot them between the heavy rocks.

This time Kochi wasn’t involved in the pain he felt when he was forced down on one knee and held his leg in pain.

“What happened?” Shintaro asked as he hurried over to him.

“I don’t know,” Taiga hissed in pain and when he took his hand away it was blood stained on which Kochi hurried towards them and cut open the lower part of Taiga’s trousers, which revealed a wound on Taiga’s calf.”

“Oh that’s not good,” Kochi said in realization about the meaning of the wound.

Shintaro hadn’t caught up yet, but before he could do so Kochi made them all duck when a throwing knife was coming their way.

Juri had figured out that they had been close and soon they stood against Jesse and Hokuto as well. Taiga hurried to hide his wound, immediately spotting the one on Hokuto’s leg.

“Let’s split up,” Kochi whispered and before the other three could get too close for a direct attack they dashed towards different directions.

Taiga hurried alongside the gorge and because he couldn’t run as fast as usual he made it down a few of the rock overhangs to find shelter to hide. At first he couldn’t hear anything and after a few minutes of hiding he dared to make his way to another overhang, but a sword missed him by inches when he pulled back, making the blade collide with the rock behind him.

“All you are capable of is shooting arrows from the distance and not even those are a threat to me,” Hokuto said arrogantly while Taiga was already searching for an escape route, unfortunately the only way was down and all he could see was a pitch black abyss.

“If you want to jump go ahead, then you spare me the fight,” Hokuto said and pointed at the abyss.

“Sorry I am not that fond of heights,” Taiga said as he drew his own sword.

“As you wish.”

There wasn’t much space for them to fight in the first place and Taiga tried to somehow bring Hokuto out of balance so he could get away, but then he came up with another plan and when he ducked away from one sword stroke he aimed for Hokuto’s hurt leg and finally brought him out of balance.

What he hadn’t calculated though was that he had actually thrown himself off balance as well as his attack resulted in his leg hurting too.

Both of them stumbled backwards, Taiga somehow finding balance on a small rock ledge, but Hokuto wasn’t that lucky and he stepped into nothing as the abyss was right behind him.

For the first time Taiga could see panic in the other one’s eyes and without even knowing what he was doing he dashed to the front, stretching his arm out to pull Hokuto back, but while he was fast enough to reach the other one he wasn’t strong enough to pull them both back and so he was the one getting pulled down the abyss together with Hokuto.

***

Taiga woke up with an immense headache and his body was aching before he even tried to move. To his surprise it wasn’t as dark as he thought and when he looked up he realized that the light was coming from the sky far above them, only visible through a thin line. The top of the abyss they had ended up falling into.

Remembering the happenings from the night before Taiga finally dared to move and of course the fall had caused more injuries, but he wasn’t sure if they were his or Hokuto’s.

He could feel some dry blood on the side of his head and a growing pain on his ribs, which were most likely broken. His legs were luckily okay, taking aside the wound from the evening.

When he carefully got up he took a look around to find Hokuto, but there were so many rocks around him that he could be anywhere.

“Hokuto, can you hear me?” Giving away his own location he dared to call out for the other one, because he should be in the same bad shape as well, so he didn’t need to fear any surprise attack.

When there was no reply Taiga moved intuitively towards one direction and slowly made it over a few of the rocks. He found a small stream going through the middle of the gorge and then he gasped when he found Hokuto lying half in it, luckily with his head out of the water.

Still aware of how dangerous Hokuto was, he dared to make it closer to the boy, but he seemed indeed unconscious. Taiga helped to get him out of the water, but it wasn’t like he could do anything to treat the other one or his own wounds. They had absolutely nothing with them, even their weapons had ended up somewhere else when they had been falling.

For now they could only wait and see if anyone was going to find them and Taiga could only hope that his clan members were faster than Hokuto’s or it would most likely be his death sentence.

First Taiga remained on distance, sitting a few meters away from Hokuto, but then his look fell on the fresh cut on his arm he carried as well. Carefully he got closer to the other one, but he hesitated a bit before he dared to lift the other one’s shirt to see how the wound on his stomach had healed.

As expected it hadn’t healed as easily as Taiga’s as Kochi had aimed for a spot that would hurt Hokuto way more than Taiga. Slowly Taiga took a look at the scars he carried as well, all of them somehow seeming worse than his own. When he looked at the fresh wound on Hokuto’s leg he realized that his own wound looked worse. So whatever happened to them wouldn’t only mirror its way on the other one’s body, but also be worse than the original wound.

“What a ridiculous connection,” Taiga said with a sigh as he fell back and sat next to Hokuto with his knees pulled up to his chest. Still exhausted from his own injuries he fell asleep in that position, but the peaceful moment wouldn’t last for long as his body started aching through a movement which wasn’t his.

When he opened his eyes again he had barely time to realize that Hokuto was up in a sitting position and way too close to him. The other one jumped to the front, grabbing Taiga by the neck and slamming him into the ground. That he was hurting himself with that attack wasn’t clear to him yet as he was hurt so badly as well that every move of his body must hurt a lot anyway.

“Let go, I wasn’t going to attack you,” Taiga said as he tried to loosen the grip of the other one, which was slowly robbing him of air.

“What a shame that I don’t care if you were. You let down your guard,” Hokuto hissed and when Taiga tried to kick him off, he crawled even more on top of the older one, forcing his body to lay still.

When Taiga started coughing, having a hard time to even keep breathing, Hokuto’s breaths also finally started to get heavier and then the strength of his grip seemed to finally get less.

“What the hell is going on, what did you do?” Hokuto asked between heavy breaths, still not being able to make the connection and instead of letting go he tried to put more strength back into his arms on which Taiga panicked that he would kill both of them in his rage.

Knowing that he would hurt himself even more than Hokuto, he picked up one of the small rocks and slammed it against the younger one’s head so that Hokuto yelped and fell to the side.

Taiga hissed on the pain he had caused himself, but still hurried to crawl away from the other one. Both of them needed a moment to get their breathing pace back under control and of course Hokuto would turn to him with another death glare, but Taiga held his arms out in defense.

“Could you for once listen?” Taiga asked, trying not to sound too annoyed.

“Listen? To give you the chance to attack me when I am off guard?”

Taiga could only roll his eyes on hearing that, but what else did he expect from a Mi-clan member. “I have no weapons with me, either do you, so if you stay over there and I stay here we have nothing to fear, right?”

Hokuto wasn’t easily convinced of that, but the pain of his injuries finally seemed to make him slow down and for the first time they could actually be at the same spot without trying to kill each other.

“Don’t you think I will spare you, this is only a temporary truce,” Hokuto warned the other one as he sat down on a nearby rock, but didn’t take his eyes off Taiga.

“Is there any moment of your life when you don’t think about killing anyone?” Taiga asked cynic, on which Hokuto got ready to explode again. “You can’t even handle a stupid joke. For god’s sake your clan must be pretty boring. Are you even killing each other when you run out of victims?”

Hokuto seemed to realize that in his bad condition it wouldn’t be worth another fight, but that didn’t stop him from picking up a rock and throwing it with as much strength as he could come up with at Taiga.

The older one lifted his arm to protect his face from the rock, but of course the impact hurt quite a bit. When it was Hokuto who hissed next Taiga bit his lip, not that it was his fault.

“Why the hell does this keep happening,” Hokuto growled and looked at his forearm on which a red bruise was visible now.

“Because you are an idiot,” Taiga said, unable to hold back.

First Hokuto gave him another death glare, but then his look rested on Taiga’s forearm where he could spot exactly the same bruise he had just received. When Taiga realized where he was staring he hid the bruise behind his hand, but he could see in the latter’s eyes that Hokuto was slowly catching up, which was extremely dangerous.

“You can’t be serious,” Hokuto said as he got up despite all his injuries and Taiga wasn’t actually capable of running away from him anymore so all he did was giving the other one a suspicious look when he crouched down in front of him. 

First Hokuto only looked forth and back between them, obviously spotting the small cuts and bruises they both carried on each other’s opposite side.

“What did you do to me?” Hokuto asked in such a low voice that it made a shiver ran down Taiga’s spine.

“I didn’t do anything.” Which was the truth, but of course Hokuto wouldn’t believe that and when he reached out for Taiga’s shirt the latter started panicking. There was no way Hokuto would be as stupid and try to hurt him even though he knew he’d hurt himself with it, except...he had figured out as well that if he aimed right he could kill Taiga without killing himself.

“What are you doing?” Taiga asked when Hokuto pinned him down once more, but this time he didn’t try to choke him. With one strong pull he ripped Taiga’s shirt in half, on which the other one froze in his movements when Hokuto got out of his shirt and kept looking down at both their stomach scars with a disbelieving look.

“So much to the lie that your clan doesn’t try to kill people,” Hokuto hissed at the other one.

“It didn’t kill you and it wasn’t supposed to,” Taiga defended his clan and while he felt the need to add that he personally didn’t even want to hurt him this way he bit it back for now.

“So what, you just enjoy it so much to hurt me or are you actually enjoying it to hurt yourself?”

“Neither and now get off me,” Taiga said, getting annoyed, but then Hokuto grabbed him by the arm, exactly over the fresh cut and buried his nails in it. Taiga hissed the same moment Hokuto flinched and while the damage wasn’t too big, Hokuto seemed more than shocked to find out that he had indeed not mistaken.

“What kind of monster are you?”

“Says the right one,” Taiga hissed back before he finally had enough and kicked the other one off him. Hokuto fell backwards half into the stream, but his mind seemed to be racing and he didn’t make an attempt to attack the other one again.

“Let me make this clear, I don’t know why this is happening and I also don’t want it to happen, but now we are stuck with this problem, both of us!”

Hokuto didn’t seem to listen to Taiga as his look fell on something a bit away from him in the stream and when he started crawling over to it Taiga felt panic rising inside of him when Hokuto pulled out one of the knives he had lost while falling.

“Great now what?” Taiga asked, trying to play down how worried he actually was that Hokuto wouldn’t care that he had to get hurt as well to hurt Taiga.

“If I attack you, then we both get hurt and I might risk getting fatally wounded,” Hokuto said as he stood up and walked closer to Taiga again who remained on the ground.

“Bright spark,” Taiga shot back, but he hadn’t seen Hokuto's next move coming when the latter turned the knife around and put it on the right side of his own chest. “But if I hurt myself instead I can make sure that I won’t take the same damage you do.”

Exactly this was what Taiga had feared so much! He slowly shook his head, but didn’t dare to get up. “You can’t even be sure you will survive it.”

“But I can be sure you won’t.”

“Is it so important to kill me?”

“Getting rid of you will take away my biggest weakness,” Hokuto explained and while he was indeed right, he was also risking killing them both.

“Don’t do this,” Taiga asked of the younger one, but Hokuto had obviously made up his mind and instead of lunging out he put the blade with such a force against his chest that a stream of blood started to flow down over his stomach. Taiga looked in shock how Hokuto shoved the blade deeper and deeper into his own chest, his body starting to tremble and his legs getting weak. When his breathing started to get erratic he finally broke down from the pain he caused himself and he fell to his knees, the knife still in place.

Taiga kept staring in shock, waiting for the pain, for the moment the invisible blade would pierce his heart, but...nothing happened.

Slowly realizing that Taiga seemed fine Hokuto started to feel irritated. “Why are you not dying?”

“How would I know?” Taiga asked, but while Hokuto seemed to slowly lose consciousness through his own actions Taiga felt like his pain was getting less and when Hokuto slowly collapsed to the front he jumped up and caught him before he could actually cause even more harm with the blade still stuck in his upper body.

To his surprise his body didn’t seem to ache as much as before anymore and he felt like the place in his chest which should have been wounded was burning from the inside instead.

“You really must hate me,” Taiga said while he turned the other one carefully on his back and tried to decide if it was a wise idea to get the dagger out or not.

“I hate you for turning your back on us,” Hokuto let out in a weak voice, not even able to keep his eyes open.

“Us?” Taiga asked in confusion.

“The Akari clan is not just your legacy, but ours as well. Yet you turned us into the enemy instead of helping us.”

For Taiga it was the other way around, but hearing from a Mi-clan member that they actually thought this way, while their actions seemed to speak something totally different he wondered why their ancestors have actually started this ridiculous war and why they kept fighting it if all they were doing was hurt each other.

“Then let me make up for all the trouble both clans have brought up on each other,” Taiga said, not knowing where he took all the confidence from when he took a hold on the knife and pulled it out the other one’s chest. Hokuto took a sharp breath, but Taiga’s hand was on the wound immediately.

The burning feeling from his chest slowly wandered down to his arm and Hokuto opened his eyes when he could obviously feel the warmth as well and then they both could see it.

The light that had been lost for centuries, connecting both their bodies. A light that could heal wounds and end wars. The hope they had all lost and feared would never be found again finally had reappeared in front of them.

Now it was their mission to keep it safe and to make sure history wouldn’t repeat itself.

But even though there had been a huge responsibility passed down to them there were different problems they had to face. The first one was to decide how to even react to this and while Taiga was stuck between a feeling of excitement and rising panic, Hokuto wasn’t looking as happy as he should maybe be about his life being saved.

“How are you feeling?” Taiga asked as he carefully removed his hand, forming a relieved smile when he realized that the wound was indeed completely gone, but while no wound appeared on his side this time he felt extremely exhausted.

Hokuto slapped the other one’s hand away and tried to get up, but even though the wound was healed he wasn’t back to full power.

“Take it slow.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Hokuto hissed and sat down a few meters away from the older one. “It’s not like I owe you a thank you.”

“I didn’t say so,” Taiga said instead of getting angry, because truth was that a thank you would be pretty appropriate. “Why are you still so angry? Isn’t it amazing that the light showed itself to us after such a long time?”

“You mean to you,” Hokuto said on which Taiga’s look darkened.

“But it showed up to rescue you and that even though you actually just tried to kill me.”

“So the light is now mocking my clan as well? It had given up on us a long time ago. I won’t put my trust in it and also not in you,” Hokuto shouted before he got up once more to get the dagger, on which Taiga made a few big steps away from him.

“Even though it showed up we don’t know if it will again and we are both not back at full strength, let’s just leave it at this?”

“Leave it at this? So you can take the light back to your clan to finally get rid of mine?”

Taiga wanted to shout at the other one what nonsense he was talking each time he got angry, but it was something he would never be able to change anyway. It was hatred so deep down in the Mi-clan that no matter what he said he wouldn’t be able to change his mind.

“Then what do you suggest? That we both die here?”

“I have no desire to die after I found a way to bring the light to my clan,” Hokuto said as he lifted the blade in his hand and pointed it at Taiga. “You will come with me to the Mi-clan.”

“In your dreams,” Taiga said, ready to defend himself even if that meant they would end up having a meaningless fight in which they would both get hurt way more than needed.

Hokuto seemed more than determined to bring Taiga with him as he dashed towards him with the dagger, but while Taiga feared his injuries would make it hard to even put up a fight, the burning in his chest suddenly returned and as if his body was moving on its own his hand grabbed the blade midair, making even Hokuto stare at him with wide eyes.

Seconds later the light returned and Hokuto hissed, releasing the dagger which seemed to have started burning in his hand.

“I fear the light doesn’t agree on your plan,” Taiga mocked the other one, but of course Hokuto didn’t need the dagger to attack Taiga and he tackled him to the ground without a warning, but only after one punch Hokuto realized that this wasn’t going to work as he shared the pain on his own cheekbone.

“Well your plan won’t really work I fear,” Taiga said as he didn’t even try to defend himself, because why should he, Hokuto would hurt himself even worse through everything he did to him.

Hokuto pulled Taiga up on his hair on which the older one cursed at him and finally started to fight back when Hokuto tried to just drag him along.

“Dude, we are in a gorge, both of us having serious injuries, where do you think you can drag me to like this?” Taiga hissed and made the other one stop.

Hokuto turned towards him with a dangerous glare and he would have taken him by the collar if he hadn’t ripped his shirt, which reminded Taiga that Hokuto was most likely planning on leaving his own shirt behind as well and he couldn’t deny that it was pretty distracting.

“You don’t deserve the light,” Hokuto let out annoyed on which Taiga snorted.

“Oh and you do? Don’t make me laugh.”

Taiga’s provocative tone made Hokuto lunge out again, but this time Taiga dodged the punch before he tried to land one this time as well. Soon they were back at a ridiculous fight with no end in sight.

“You would only use the light for destruction,” Taiga yelled at the other one, but Hokuto didn’t even deny it.

“It’s not like your clan wouldn’t deserve being erased!”

“Listen to yourself, how would the light even consider choosing your clan if history was going to repeat itself?”

“Don’t worry, this time it won’t, because I will make sure we win this time,” Hokuto roared as he tried to stop Taiga from fighting back and he trapped his arms as he pulled him with his back against his chest.

While Taiga had been so excited to share the recovery of the light with his clan he was now wondering why it had chosen such a timing to show itself. Had it really been a good idea to heal Hokuto? He wasn’t grateful for the rescue and immediately plotted against the original purpose of the light, bringing peace instead of destruction.

When Hokuto tried to drag him along again Taiga decided that he wouldn’t hand over the light to the Mi-clan that easily, but he also refused to fall as low as them so he wanted to find a way to reason with Hokuto instead of having to continue this meaningless fight.

As if his inner struggle had reached his new found powers he could feel how his chest started burning once more and he hurried to break free from Hokuto’s grip and swirl around. He put his hand on the other one’s chest and Hokuto gasped when he realized that the light in Taiga’s hand was returning. Instead of getting away though he grabbed Taiga by the arm and pulled him closer. Taken off balance Taiga fell to the front and then for a split second everything around them seemed to fall silent until the light exploded between them, taking them both off their feet while the light shot into the sky.

The next time Taiga opened his eyes he heard people approaching him and first he panicked, but when he forced his body to move so he could look up the steep rocky surface to see who had found him he felt relieved to see Kochi and Shintaro making their way down to him. Suddenly remembering what had happened, maybe minutes or even hours ago, he turned his head to find Hokuto unconscious a few meters away from him.

“Damn, what happened here?” Kochi asked as they both must look pretty beaten up and well it was also obvious that they had fallen down a pretty steep overhang.

Shintaro had his sword out immediately and walked up to Hokuto while Kochi helped Taiga up into a sitting position.

“Leave him be,” Taiga said on which Shintaro raised an eyebrow and looked at Kochi.

“Are you sure?” Kochi asked and Taiga nodded.

“Our clan doesn’t run around murdering people and we should definitely not start it with an unconscious enemy,” Taiga said and the other two couldn’t actually find any arguments against that. While Kochi slowly helped Taiga up, Shintaro looked at Hokuto once more before he pointed at him and then at Taiga. “Tell me why is your shirt ripped and why is his missing?”

Taiga rolled his eyes on the ridiculous unnecessary question. “Unimportant, how did you find us?”

The change of topic made Shintaro shrug his shoulders and point at the sky. “We couldn’t find you since yesterday night, but then some weird light flashed through the sky.”

“That means the Mi-clan has seen it too, so we have to hurry.”

“Taiga, what was that light?” Kochi asked, already a knowing look on his face on which Taiga couldn’t hide a smile.

“Hope, my friend!”


	2. Return of the light

“Wait, you saved Hokuto with it, are you out of your mind?” Kochi scolded Taiga after he had told him and Shintaro about what had happened.

“It appeared exactly at that moment so what else should I have done? Oh sorry light, thanks you for showing up after hundreds of years, but I will just let him die, thanks for the offer?”

Shintaro started laughing on the bad joke, but zipped it when Kochi gave him a death glare.

“So the outcome is that he seriously tried to steal the light from our clan after you saved him.”

“Actually he tried to steal Taiga,” Shintaro added on which Taiga was the one to throw a bandage they hadn’t needed to treat his wounds, at the younger one on which Shintaro pouted.

“So what are we going to do?” Taiga asked, putting a new shirt on after Kochi was done treating him. While the light had saved Hokuto’s life, the remaining injuries were still there.

The older one shrugged his shoulders. “Can you just use the light on your own free will?”

Taiga looked at his hand and tried to summon it or do whatever it actually took to let it appear, but as expected nothing happened.

“Boring,” Shintaro interfered, but got a death glare from both of them. “WHAT? It IS boring, because there is absolutely nothing cool about getting an ancient power and the only time it shows up is to save the freaking enemy!”

Shintaro had a point there, Taiga couldn’t deny that, but maybe there was way more behind that sudden appearance of the light.

“I would say for now all we can do is keep you and the light safe and hope that in case they actually dare to attack you it will show itself again to help out.”

“Let’s hope the light is not a moody kind of power or it might ditch you and run over to Hokuto at some point.”

This time Kochi had enough and got up, chasing Shintaro through the room, threatening him to put the remaining cotton pads in his mouth if he wouldn’t shut up.

In his thoughts Taiga kept touching the palm of his hand, but there was nothing that was even close to what he had experienced before. The feeling in his chest was also gone and he couldn’t deny that he felt a bit sad about the light not showing itself to him once more.

“Guys, I think I should get some sleep. Let’s see what we can find out tomorrow, okay?”

Kochi shouted over to him to take a good rest while he was half hanging on Shintaro’s back, trying to stop the other one from running away and Taiga could only smile and shake his head on the chaos their own clan was creating.

Hours later he still lay awake though and he didn’t want to admit the reason for it, but maybe he could just make the light responsible for his concern? Because why else would he be worried for Hokuto? It didn’t matter if his clan members had found him or not and the fact that Taiga was still alive meant Hokuto was too, right? But there a slight headache found its way into Taiga’s restless night, because would they really die when the other one died? It was a scary thought and Taiga tried to ignore that important question for now, but when he turned around and forced his eyes shut to finally get some sleep he could feel something. Unfortunately this wasn’t about the light. It was something bad, something way worse. With a hiss he reached out for his forearm, covering it with his hand, but soon blood started dripping to the ground.

“What the hell are you doing?” Taiga scolded the one, who couldn’t hear him of course, but the pain wouldn’t stop and more and more cuts appeared on his arm until he was close to screaming out of pain, but then finally it stopped.

Needing a moment to calm down Taiga kept his hand pressed over his forearm, blood now running between his fingers. Then he remembered that Hokuto couldn’t hurt him if he hurt himself so whatever had happened had been done to him so once more Taiga worried where he shouldn’t.

Still breathing a bit erratic through the pain Taiga made it out of his room to put his arm under the running water until the bleeding didn’t seem too bad anymore. A little bit hesitant he finally dared to lift his hand and what he saw made him gasp.

“Taiga, what are you doing?”

On Kochi’s voice he pressed his hand back on his forearm, but of course the other one wouldn’t just leave. “I saw blood drops in the corridor. What happened?”

“I needed to redo one of the bandages,” Taiga lied on which Kochi raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t bandage your forearm,” Kochi said knowingly and he just got more suspicious when Taiga stepped back when he tried to get closer.

“Cut the crap Taiga, what is going on? Did he get hurt?”

Of course that was the most logical explanation, but Taiga couldn’t even answer to that clearly anymore, because did he get hurt?”

“Show me your arm,” Kochi demanded and while Taiga shook his head Kochi had enough and reached out for the other one’s arms and after a small struggle he finally had a look at the wound, if it could be called that.

“What the actual…” Kochi said out of words over what he saw on Taiga’s forearm. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t get what he does to himself?”

“I thought I couldn’t.”

“So are you telling me he let someone from his clan do this?”

Taiga didn’t want to say yes, but that was the only good explanation.

“At least now we know that he won’t stop at anything to get his hands on the light,” Kochi hissed annoyed and left the shower first, getting his medical supplies.

Taiga was left staring down at his forearm and no matter how often he read what was written on it, there was still no hatred he felt against the other one.

_Give us the light_

It was deeply carved into his forearm, yet Taiga could only feel pity for Hokuto and his twisted mind, because fact was that he had to ask someone else to hurt him this badly so it would appear on Taiga’s arm and while he knew that the Mi-clan was known for a cruel behavior even among their own members this was beyond what he had imagined until now.

When he put his hand over his forearm again he gasped when he recognized the burning feeling in his chest.

“Let’s get it disinfected first, it might-,” Kochi stopped dead on his tracks when he came back into the room and was greeted by the light shining brightly between Taiga’s fingers, just to vanish seconds later.

With the same confused expression as Kochi, Taiga looked up at him before he took his hand away just to find the message on his arm gone.

“I guess at least now we know on whose side the light is,” Kochi said, but Taiga thought differently. There was no way the light would want another war between them after it had actually abandoned them through all the fighting.

***

They had expected the whole clan to show up when the alarm went off the next morning, Taiga getting his bow and arrows, going for the tower right away, but he was more than surprised to only see Hokuto, Jesse and Juri standing in front of their gates, too far away to actually be of any danger, which made him wonder what they had come for.

“They definitely came with a plan,” Kochi said, crossing his arms to his chest with a thoughtful expression.

“Then let’s just be faster and attack them while we can?” Shintaro said and for once in a while Kochi seemed to consider the boy’s idea.

Their eyes were back on the Mi-clan members when Juri stepped to the front, a few of their archers immediately getting their arrows up, but they were still out of reach.

“If there is going to be a fight or not is up to you,” Juri shouted towards them, but Taiga just couldn’t imagine the Mi-Clan coming up with something that didn’t involve fighting.

Kochi made his way out of the tower and Shintaro and Taiga followed him towards the outer wall, where they stepped above the gate, visible for the Mi-clan members.

Taiga’s eyes immediately wandered off towards Hokuto and he didn’t miss his bandaged forearm. He had his own arm bandaged as well, but while there was no wound left it had been Kochi’s idea to at least make them believe there was a wound so that they wouldn’t get to know even more about the light’s powers and it seemed like the light had indeed only healed Taiga this time.

“Then what did you come for if not to fight?” Kochi asked and Juri pointed at Taiga without any outrights. “We want the light.”

“What a shame that the light doesn’t want you,” Shintaro shot back.

Juri looked back at the other two, but Jesse only shrugged his shoulders, because they were actually right, because the light had chosen Taiga, not Hokuto.

“Turn around now and we will do you no harm,” Kochi let out, hoping they would actually take their fair offer, but then Hokuto stepped towards the front and Taiga could see the hate in his eyes. But he didn’t understand it. It wasn’t like Taiga had mocked him, all he had done was saving his life and he still hoped he wouldn’t regret it.

“Isn’t the light meant to bring peace?” Hokuto asked, to their obvious surprise. “Shouldn’t you offer your help instead of keeping it to yourself? There is definitely a reason why it showed up after all this time.”

“Which might be the light having enough of these idiots,” Shintaro hissed so that they wouldn’t hear him.

When Taiga stepped to the front all eyes were on him next and Kochi stood beside him with a worried expression, because he knew how reckless he could be sometimes.

“Then what do you suggest?”

“Give us the chance to do research on the light. Maybe it can be of help to both our clans. You rescued me with it after all or do you want to turn your back now?”

It was a smart move to corner Taiga with that statement, but he wasn’t going to act this quick and he lifted his bandaged arm. “You should have maybe come first and ask before sending this message.”

Hokuto looked towards Juri on that move, which showed that this might not have been Hokuto’s idea in the first place. They had acted too rushed and didn’t think about the consequences, not that it was surprising for the Mi-Clan.

“The Rei-clan is known for its forgiveness though,” Hokuto tried to turn things around, but this time Taiga couldn’t hide a mocking smile, which made Hokuto’s try to keep a neutral expression fail and his hatred immediately showed again.

“Even if I forgive you, I won’t trust you.”

“Not that we ever trusted you,” Kochi added and they didn’t miss the look Jesse and Juri exchanged on the refusal of their offer.

“Suit yourself then,” Jesse said and pulled out a dagger. There was no way they would try to storm into their hideout with only three people, but then Taiga saw the slightly troubled expression on Hokuto’s face and that was when it clicked.

“Kochi, get some warriors out to them, immediately!”

“What, why?”

“NOW,” Taiga yelled and he hurried down the stairs first, shouting at some people to open the gates and attack them. All they needed for now was them being busy with running and being out of reach of their clan.

“Taiga, what the hell is going on?” Shintaro shouted when he and Kochi dashed after him while Taiga ran through the gates with a few warriors, but then he screamed out, falling to his knees on which all of them stopped and looked in sheer panic to the wound on his leg, which had appeared out of nowhere.

“No…” Kochi let out in shock, looking up at Hokuto who was also sitting on the ground, Jesse standing next to him with a bloody knife.

“BASTARDS,” Shintaro shouted and wanted to dash towards them, but Juri was faster and he drew the sword he carried on his back and put it next to Hokuto’s neck resulting in Kochi yelling at Shintaro to stop.

“They won’t kill one of their own,” Shintaro yelled back at him, but he didn’t even believe his own words, because to get the light they would most likely at least hurt him enough to somehow get to Taiga.

“If you kill him then Taiga will die too,” Kochi shouted over to them, but they seemed more than aware of that.

Taiga on the other hand didn’t even bother with all the shouting, his eyes were fixed on Hokuto, but the latter wouldn’t look back at him. He was sure that they wouldn’t kill Hokuto, not with there still being a chance to get the light into their hands, but they would indeed not care to hurt one of their comrades to get it and that made Taiga feel more than disgusted about their clan and for the first time he felt like Hokuto’s hate might had a foundation that wasn’t necessarily related to the Rei-clan in the first place.

“So back to our offer,” Juri said and sliced the blade over Hokuto’s arm without a warning, making both boys hiss at the same time and hold their arms in pain.

It was to their surprise Kochi who made a sudden move as he drew a knife and crouched down next to Taiga, putting the knife over the right side of his chest.

“We can play this game as well,” Kochi let out with a dangerous look, but Jesse was the first one to laugh.

“As if your clan was capable of hurting your own members.”

“I did this before to stop you and I will do it again, especially because this is about the light and we won’t give it to you this easily,” Kochi yelled back at them.

“Trying to kill Hokuto, but keeping Taiga alive might be a dangerous game,” Juri said, pulling away his sword and giving Hokuto some space.

“I won’t hurt you,” Kochi whispered next to Taiga, which made him relax a bit, because Kochi had indeed used his and Hokuto’s connection before, but not in such a dangerous way. Nevertheless it was a good move to threaten them.

“We have all the supplies here needed to give him a quick treatment, but you are way too far away from your clan to rescue Hokuto, so once more I offer you to retreat.”

This time they seemed to consider Kochi’s offer and Juri sighed, lifting up one hand. “Fine, you win.”

Relieved about hearing a little bit of sanity from them Kochi got up, but that had been exactly the one move Juri had obviously been waiting for and without any kind of hesitation he lunged out and stabbed the sword right through Hokuto’s body, making the boy gasp.

The shock had made them all freeze for a moment until Taiga fell to the front with a pained noise, holding his arms over his upper body and Kochi had to look in shock how the clothes on his back got soaked in blood.

“YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS,” Shintaro roared, but instead of actually dashing into an attack he remained next to Taiga, while Kochi pressed his hand against his back, trying to stop the bleeding.

“Let’s hurry and close the gates, then you can use the light to heal yourself,” Kochi suggested and it was indeed something he would usually consider, because yes he would heal and Hokuto wouldn’t, but there was something that felt different than the evening before and he shook his head.

“It won’t help me this time.”

“How do you know that?” Kochi asked, already shouting at Shintaro to help him get Taiga back inside so they could close the gates, but Taiga stopped them.

“I know this might sound weird, but what if they are right?” Taiga let out in between heavy breathes. “What if the light showed up to actually establish a connection again and that is why it doesn’t want me to deny?”

“That sounds super stupid,” Shintaro complained.

“Then why did it help Hokuto, why did it heal me yesterday, but refuses to show up now? You said it yourself, it might be a moody power and here you see it yourself. It tells me to not let him suffer while I will be alright.”

“So what, does it want you to actually go with them?” Kochi let out, not wanting to believe that ridiculous idea.

“We will find out in a moment,” Taiga let out confident and clawed his hands into Shintaro’s arm to be able to stand up.

“I won’t let them take you away from us. They will kill you if they can somehow get their hands on the light,” Kochi interfered and Taiga gave him a grateful smile before he put his hand on his shoulder. “Don’t you think after all these years we should maybe have a bit of trust in the light itself? As crazy as it seems at the moment, I doubt it showed up to cause more bloodshed between us.”

There was a lot of logic in Taiga’s words and none of them could deny that, but that didn’t mean they wanted to agree to his plan.

“I can only ask you to trust me, there is nothing else I can say,” Taiga let out with a smile towards his friends and after a small moment of hesitation both of them nodded.

“I will beat their ass if they dare to hurt you,” Shintaro threatened with a dangerous look towards Juri and Jesse, who waited patiently for Taiga to move, while Hokuto had already crumbled to the front, unable to move yet his comrades wouldn’t help him.

Taiga finally dared to take a step away from his friends, but it was hard for him to even walk the small distance between them and he needed to focus a lot to not stumble on the way. With his eyes fixed on Hokuto he finally made his way over to them, but Juri stepped in his way on which they could hear Shintaro yelling at him from the gates.

“If you want the light you need me to live, so step aside,” Taiga explained, but Juri seemed skeptical, but how should he understand anything about the light when not even Taiga knew what exactly the purpose of it coming back was?

“If you try anything stupid you will regret it,” Juri said and stepped aside and Taiga bit back a comment, because who was being the stupid one, stabbing their own friends?

Hokuto flinched a bit when Taiga reached out for his shoulder as if he hadn’t even realized that Taiga had walked up towards him. When he finally looked up there was not much of the hate left in his eyes, there was so much more going on now and it hurt Taiga way more than the physical pain they shared.

“I hope my sacrifice will help you a lot more than the light healing your wounds,” Taiga let out and when he put his hand on Hokuto’s upper body the warm feeling in his chest finally returned, making Juri and Jesse gasp when the light finally showed itself to them, bathing Hokuto and Taiga in its shine before it vanished again.

With a quick look at Hokuto's forearm he spotted the message from the evening before under the loose bandage, so even now it was still not healed, remaining as a punishment for his clan’s foolish act.

On the other hand Taiga could feel how the wound on his upper body had healed the moment he had healed Hokuto, so the light granted them both healing if Taiga used it for Hokuto. There were still a lot of open questions, but only time would tell what the light was offering them and where it might have punishments for them as well.

The moment Taiga stood up Juri put his sword right next to his neck, but Taiga didn’t try to run. He had known of the outcome of his actions and he would stand to his word.

“I will go with you, but if you hurt any of us again it will only delay everything,” Taiga said in a calm voice, but the others remained skeptical. Jesse helped Hokuto up and as expected there wouldn’t be any thank you from the other one.

“Let’s go,” was all Hokuto said before he turned around first and Taiga looked back at Kochi and Shintaro once more and he could see the way both of them were holding back so much to not actually try and attack the others after all.


	3. Greed

“Are you for real?” Taiga asked with a raised eyebrow at the handcuffs with a chain attached, which Juri pulled out before they entered the Mi-Clan’s territory.

“Just because we allowed you to walk freely until here, doesn’t mean we will take the risk and let you wander around our territory just like this. Who knows what you kept secret about the light, we won’t risk anything.”

“I doubt Hokuto kept any secrets from you, so there is nothing I was actually able to hide in the first place,” Taiga let out judging towards Hokuto while Juri pulled his wrists to the front to close the handcuffs.

Hokuto didn’t even react to Taiga’s mocking, but then Jesse started teasing him about the connection between him and Taiga while they kept walking. When Hokuto didn’t play along and just ignored him Jesse pouted and fell back next to Taiga instead.

“Say, how does this connection between you two work?”

First Taiga wanted to reply with a snappy ‘as if I’d tell you’, but then again it was Jesse and somehow Taiga had never felt like he was one of the super bad guys inside the Mi-clan, but Juri on the other side was going with all their bad traditions and being around him was always dangerous.

“Do you only share pain?”

“What else should they share?” Juri asked and rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know that’s why I am asking,” Jesse pouted on which Taiga had to hide a smile. When not in battle they were the same chaotic troop as him, Shintaro and Kochi after all.

“If we shared more than pain then he would have the light too, right?”

Taiga’s words actually made Hokuto turn towards him with a slightly startled look and even Juri seemed in his thoughts for a moment before Jesse let out a way too loud laughter.

“Good point, what a shame you don’t share the good things.”

The rest of the way they didn’t talk much, except Jesse not being able to hold back way too many questions until Juri told him to shut up.

The Mi-clan hideout wasn’t that much different from their own, after all the origins were the same. Huge stone walls for protections, places for archers in the high towers and a location hard to find and hard to attack. The difference showed inside of the walls! The members of the clan were quiet, their looks cold and their hate towards Taiga obvious. If they had heard about the light or if it was only known by the inner circle members was unknown to him, but he knew he had to be cautious, because no matter if they said they only wanted to learn about the light this was enemy’s territory and he wasn’t a guest, only a prisoner and only alive for as long as they wanted him to be.

“You will stay in the center building,” Juri explained as they walked up a lot of stairs, away from the walls and deeper into the mountain area where the hideout was located. The buildings seemed to be part of the rocks itself as if they had used caves to build a strong guard and a necessary escape route.

“By the way if you think I can just summon the light and show you everything it can do then I have to disappoint you, because that is not how it works,” Taiga explained while some members of the clan opened a heavy guarded metal door for them and they stepped into a big hall with a lot of torches lightning up the cave like ceiling.

“I don’t care what you can or cannot do,” Juri said annoyed as he pushed him towards a smaller metal door in a side corridor while Jesse unlocked the room. “If things don’t go as we wish, we always have Hokuto to change that.”

Taiga wasn’t the only one to look angry at that, but Hokuto’s anger lasted only for a second before he switched back to neutral when Jesse stepped next to him while Juri pushed Taiga into the room and took his handcuffs off.

“This room is under a high mountain and I doubt even the light can help you out through the walls and the door will be guarded, not to forget that you would have to face the whole Mi-clan if you tried to escape,” Juri explained.

Taiga couldn’t even ask anything before Juri slammed the door shut and with a sigh he turned around, taking a look at the room. At least it was indeed a room, not something like a cell. He even had a double sized bed, a desk and there was also some water on the table.

There was a lid candle on the desk and a torch on the wall, but because the room was out of solid rock the environment made Taiga shiver. He was used to the Rei-clan’s big windows, the river flowing through their territory and everything being so much more inviting and lively than here.

If he had made the right decision of coming here he won’t know before they started whatever they had in mind to research on the light, but he could only hope that the light would protect him in case things would go out of hand.

“You brought me here, I hope you know what you got yourself into,” Taiga said as he sat on the bed and looked at his palm, but for now the light wouldn’t guide him and he was left on his own.

***

“Another dark room, great,” Taiga complained as he barely saw the sunlight when Jesse picked him up the next day and all they did was entering another dark place.

This time though the place was way bigger. Hokuto and Juri were waiting for them already, but the moment Taiga looked up at them, Hokuto immediately looked away.

“We can also take the torch and candles out of your room if you want it even darker,” Juri shot back before he told Jesse to take the handcuffs off and guard the door.

Juri walked away to a shelf and picked up a sword before he walked back to Taiga who raised an eyebrow at him as he was obviously not receiving any weapon.

“Are you actually trying to beat the light out of me?”

“If necessary,” Juri replied while Hokuto walked over to Jesse, obviously not being part of whatever was going to happen, not that he could completely stay out of it, after all if Juri hurt Taiga he would get hurt as well.

“So Hokuto said the light can be used for fighting as well, show me,” Juri said and raised the sword, but Taiga could only let out an annoyed growl.

“The light is not a direct weapon, all that happened back then was the light protecting me. I can’t just bring it out and attack you.”

“Well then,” Juri said before he dashed to the front without a warning making Taiga squeal and duck away under a sword thrust.

“Dude, are you trying to kill me?”

Juri wasn’t playing around, he had attacked with full power and speed, but he also didn’t seem to understand why Taiga was so surprised. “We didn’t bring you here for small talk and if you can’t show us the light then you are of no use to us.”

Before Taiga could argue, Juri had dashed into the next attack, but all Taiga could do was run away as he had no weapon to defend himself. At least no weapon he knew how to use.

“A good runner I see. Time to corner you more then,” Juri said and one look at Jesse made Taiga immediately realize what they were up to.

“Are you seriously going to keep hurting one of your own for your greed?”

Juri stretched out his arm, pointing the tip of the sword right at Taiga’s head with a dangerous expression. “This is not a game for us. The light belonged to our ancestors as well after all. We will do whatever necessary to get back what is ours.”

And there was the problem, because that was definitely the reason why the light wouldn’t show itself to them. But before Taiga could make that point clear he had to jump away from Juri’s next attack, unfortunately the next step to the back was interrupted by a piercing pain in his thigh and he lost balance for a second on which Juri’s sword made light contact with his arm before he was able to roll over and get on distance.

This time he had no worried look for Hokuto left, all he showed the other one was the same hate he received all the time as well. Hokuto wasn’t a prisoner like himself. If he didn’t want to get hurt by his own friends he could tell them to stop, but he didn’t. He played the victim where he was actually the abuser.

“Out of options?” Juri asked with a lopsided sneer while Taiga had trouble looking at Juri and Jesse at the same time to see what injury would follow next. Hokuto tried his best to not scream out each time Jesse would go with the knife for him, but of course he would also receive all the cuts Juri hit with his sword on Taiga.

“It’s you who had no options from the start,” Taiga yelled, finally letting his anger out. “You should feel ashamed of using one of your own in such a cruel way. The light will never choose a violent clan like yours.”

“We will see that,” Juri said before he dashed into the next attack and when Taiga wanted to twist away and go for Juri’s hands to somehow get the sword he hissed and was forced to pull back when a long cut appeared on his arm.

The sword pierced him slightly on the side of his ribs when he was too slow to turn around and for a moment he wondered if Juri would actually risk killing Hokuto or actually both of them.

“Isn’t it enough for today?”

The question came unexpected and when Taiga turned his head towards Hokuto he realized that the other one was fighting hard to stand upright. The same applied for Taiga, but he had to worry about Juri and couldn’t just give in to the pain.

It was hard to tell though if Hokuto wanted this weird experiment to stop because he was in too much pain or if he, most unlikely, also thought that this was going nowhere.

“There is no way that the light would just ignore you if you are in danger,” Juri said annoyed on the pointless fighting.

“How should I know what the light wants? Maybe it could also just move on to someone else,” Taiga said without thinking.

When he realized what he had said he stepped away from the younger one, because Juri had caught up with his thoughts immediately.

“Then we can maybe end all of this sooner than expected,” Juri announced and let the sword drop before he went for a close combat with Taiga and with all the wounds they had already caused him it didn’t take much to bring him out of balance.

Juri sat on top of him and closed his hands around his neck with such a force that Taiga started coughing immediately, slashing his arms around, trying to claw Juri’s face.

He could hear from the back how Hokuto crumbled to the ground at some point, but he had no time to worry for the other one, after all if Juri seriously went for it then they would both end up dead.

“If the light doesn’t want to protect you then we have no use for you,” Juri let out cold, putting more weight on Taiga’s body as he tried to somehow twist away.

“Juri...stop it…”

The almost inaudible begging came from Hokuto and when Juri didn’t react and Jesse also didn’t say anything to stop him Taiga’s anger changed into another direction. This time Hokuto had said it out loud. He had asked his friends to stop and yet they didn’t care and that made the huge difference between the few tactical wounds Kochi had caused Taiga before and the destructive way of using their connection for their own benefit.

A sudden confidence boost made Taiga move one of his hands to Juri’s chest and then all his anger moved to his chest, awaking the burning feeling again and before Juri even knew what had hit him the bright light blinded them all for a few seconds and when they could see again Juri had ended up several meters away from him on the ground.

“Damn that was impressive,” Jesse said casually while Hokuto and Taiga both remained on the floor, coughing and gasping for air.

Jesse went over to Juri to check up on the boy and he was still conscious, but had obvious problems to get up by himself.

“I guess the light is more of a weapon than you thought,” Juri addressed Taiga, but the other one only gave him a death glare when he was back in a sitting position.

Luckily they seemed satisfied with their first try to find out more about the light, but if they really thought it was okay to continue this way either Taiga and Hokuto or Juri would soon end up dead.

They called some other clan members to take care of Hokuto, while Jesse brought Taiga back to his room.

“Why didn’t you let me heal him?” Taiga asked on the way back on which Jesse looked at him in confusion.

“Right, there was that option.”

“Are you serious?” Taiga asked in shock, not understanding how they could actually let their own friend suffer while they had actually known from the start that the light could heal them both.

“Well I guess you can heal yourself in your room and then he should be fine too, right?”

Jesse’s assumption was wrong, but Taiga wouldn’t tell him that so easily. He had slipped earlier already so he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

When he was back in his room he used the bowl of water placed on his desk to wash all the cuts and bruises, but while he felt like the light would indeed offer to heal him he wouldn’t use it this time. If they found out that Hokuto would only heal if Taiga healed him directly they would definitely use it against him. 


	4. a second chance

“Are you that masochistic or do you hate Hokuto that much that you want to see him suffer even if you have to do so as well?”

Taiga didn’t even react to Juri’s mocking after he had been brought back to the same training space the next day. Hokuto’s wounds have been treated so except for the bandages there was nothing that showed what had happened the day before. For Taiga it was different. He had cleaned his wounds, but he couldn’t easily stop the bleeding and in the end he had used the bed sheets to somehow bandage them, but he left his room in a chaotic state thanks to that.

“I guess I didn’t hurt you bad enough if you refuse to use the light to heal yourself.”

The yourself part was the problem, but Taiga wouldn’t let them find out about that secret for now. Which meant he just had to let Juri hurt him bad enough for them to let Taiga heal Hokuto on the spot instead of bringing him to his room first.

To Taiga’s surprise Juri threw a sword into his direction and when it landed on the ground in front of him he gave the other one a skeptical look.

“If you don’t want it, don’t use it. You can use the light instead, that would spare you a lot of pain and us a lot of time.”

Already getting annoyed by the other one’s try to force him to use the light again in combat Taiga picked up the sword, but Juri didn’t pick up one himself on which he tilted his head.

“Not going to fight today?”

“You threw me through half the room yesterday, so no thank you.”

Taiga had to hold back the mocking comment about how they dared to hurt Hokuto through hurting him and here Juri complained about one small injury already.

“Today I will play with you,” Jesse was heard behind him and Taiga turned his attention towards him, but he wasn’t going to get fooled by the other one’s unfitting smile. Jesse was a strong fighter no matter how stupid he sometimes seemed and all the smiling and laughing was mostly only to distract his opponent and well, he was actually crazy enough to really enjoy all the fighting.

Fighting against Jesse was bad enough, but also being unable to go on distance was even worse. He was an archer after all so it didn’t take long until he had to suffer the first few cuts and when Juri ran out of patience as the day before he walked up to Hokuto on which to his and also Hokuto’s surprise Taiga made a dash away from Jesse and jumped in front of Juri to stop him.

“Oh, getting protective?” Juri teased.

“I am only protecting myself,” Taiga replied. If they didn’t care that Hokuto got hurt then that was their problem, but going directly for Hokuto to hurt him was getting so on his nerves that he indeed had enough.

“You really think you can stop me?” Juri asked while Jesse also walked up to them, playing around with his sword.

“You know what, yes I can,” Taiga said in realization about what he could actually do to make them stop forcing the light to protect him and he turned away from them and walked up to Hokuto before any of the others even realized what he was up to.

Hokuto seemed as confused as them and that was also why he didn’t even react fast enough to get his arms up when Taiga turned his sword around and hit Hokuto with the hilt right against the head.

The outcome was at he had hoped and there was no way for Juri to try his stupid games anymore if they were both unconscious!

***

Taiga woke up with a breaking headache later, finding himself back in his room, so at least his plan had worked out. There would be a consequence that was for sure, but for now he didn’t care. When he had said he would go with them so they could research about the light, not that Taiga himself knew much about what was going on, he hadn’t agreed on them hurting him every single day.

A knock on the door startled him, because until now whoever had come to pick him up had just entered. With the room having no windows it was also hard to tell what time it was, but he was definitely not willing to go back to one of Juri’s stupid torture training sessions. When he didn’t reply anything there was another hesitant knock and this time Taiga rolled his eyes and sat up.

“What?”

It wasn’t actually an invitation to enter the room, but the door opened nevertheless. To his surprise it was Hokuto who stepped inside.

“What do you want?”

Hokuto didn’t reply, instead he walked up to the desk and put some bandages down and Taiga raised an eyebrow at him.

“I realized that you refused to heal us, so I thought you might at least want to properly treat your wounds.”

It was obvious how awkward Hokuto felt about coming in the first place and he turned around, ready to head straight for the door.

“Why do you not stop them?”

The question made Hokuto stop, but he didn’t turn back towards Taiga.

“If this is the only way to get to know more about the light, then I am willing to take the pain.”

“Oh and no one asks me if I want to take the pain?”

This time Hokuto actually turned back towards him and Taiga could still not completely read his expression. There was so much hate against the Rei-clan, yet there was also something vulnerable. He had seen it shining through so often now, but Hokuto would always just hide away behind his hate again and pretend like nothing was wrong.

“They hurt me and as a result you get hurt. They hurt you for the purpose of hurting me. Yet you don’t even know if the light would show itself to you if you just asked for it.”

Hokuto couldn’t hide a mocking chuckle on that statement on which Taiga got up, but still remained on distance.

“Remember that the light saved your life.”

“Yes the light, not you.”

The rage inside Taiga boiled over to such a dangerous degree that if the light actually allowed it he would get rid of Hokuto right here and now for that ignorant comment, yet the light didn’t show any reaction.

“Your clan is so eaten up by hate that you can’t even see through people’s intentions.”

“At least our clan doesn’t hide behind all that fake attitude. Don’t forget that your own people also hurt you to get to me.”

He was right, but this topic would lead to an hour long discussion, which Taiga couldn’t win, because Hokuto wouldn’t listen to any valid argument and while Taiga felt so angry about it he also pitied the other one, knowing that Hokuto definitely didn’t want to be hurt all the time yet for the sake of the clan he wouldn’t speak up and he would do everything no matter the consequences for himself. It was indeed a sad life.

“Get out,” Taiga said before he sat down on the bed again without facing the other one.

Hokuto turned away immediately, but he stopped at the door, just for a brief moment, before he left without another word.

This was Hokuto’s clan. He wouldn’t even need to leave. He could have thrown all his rage at Taiga, yet he had decided to leave him alone. Another moment in which Taiga didn’t know what to think of the other one. Was Taiga just not worth his time or was he actually running away from him? 

***

Taiga couldn’t hide a loud laugh the moment he realized that Juri had actually put two guards next to Hokuto when Jesse brought him back to the training location the next day.

“You do realize that I can knock out myself as well?” Taiga mocked the other one right away.

“But then Hokuto won’t take any damage.”

Was Juri playing stupid or did he really believe Taiga did this to hurt Hokuto? Wasn’t it clear to them that he just had enough of them using him as a guinea pig?

“Fine you know what, let’s go then,” Taiga said, his anger finally boiling over, especially after the way Hokuto had left his room the evening before.

“Oh, did you get a confidence boost?” Juri teased before he handed Jesse a sword and threw one in front of Taiga who picked it up with an annoyed expression.

“More like an annoyance boost.”

He proved that immediately as he jumped at Juri head on and took him so off guard that he was able to kick him to the ground right in time to turn towards Jesse and block an attack before he ducked away and swirl around the other one who was known to be a strong, but not necessarily a fast fighter.

He landed a kick against Jesse’s back, but Juri was back up again and dashed into the next attack right away. Juri was fast and skilled with the sword so it didn’t take long until Taiga received the first cuts, but he wouldn’t care anymore. He didn’t even waste time looking over at Hokuto.

When Jesse was back in the game it got harder for Taiga to keep up with both their attacks and soon he screamed out when a long cut on his back made him crumble to the ground.

“I guess without the light this is your limit,” Juri said and kicked the other one against the shoulder so that Taiga fell to the side, but he was too angry to just give up like this and he rolled over, ignoring the pain and dashed towards Jesse first.

The younger one was completely taken by surprise when Taiga didn’t avoid his sword and took the cut on his shoulder to be able to jump at the other one with his knee hitting Jesse under the chin and making him stumble backwards.

When he turned around Juri had already lunged out for him, stabbing him right under his ribs, but instead of letting Juri take his distance Taiga grabbed the latter’s sword and pulled him closer, causing the sword to enter the side of his body even deeper.

“Do you have a death wish?” Juri asked a bit irritated.

“Do you want to lose a comrade?” Taiga asked back on which Juri looked over at Hokuto, who was sitting on the ground with a painful grimace. Juri’s attack had caused him way more pain than Taiga as he had hit a spot that could actually kill Hokuto.

“We have the light to heal you both,” Jesse interfered, but didn’t approach him as he had still trouble regaining his balance after the last hit.

“Listen at the nonsense you are talking,” Taiga finally lost it and yelled. His grip around Juri’s sword turned so strong that the blood from his hand kept dripping to the ground and Juri looked worried for the first time. “None of us knows why the light showed itself after all this time. Not even I know why it chose me and when it will show itself and when not. How can you put your trust into something no one understands? And how dare you use it in such a cruel way? The light gave its powers to us to protect us and not to make us hurt each other. That is why it disappeared in the first place.”

“But now it’s back, so there must be a reason,” Juri countered, but not as confident as usual. 

“AND IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT IF IT DISAPPEARS AGAIN,” Taiga roared and pulled Juri’s sword out again before he lunged out for the other one and actually hit Juri on the arm before the other one could get on distance.

Jesse approached him from the back and tried to get the sword from him, but Taiga kept lunging out towards both of them, while his breathing pace got more erratic and the blood loss made it hard for him to keep his balance. “YOU ARE CRUEL AND EVEN RUTHLESS AGAINST YOUR OWN FRIENDS! YOU DON’T DESERVE THE LIGHT!”

It was the first time Taiga spoke this downgrading about the Mi-Clan, because he always wanted to keep a bit of faith in them and maybe that had also been why the light had allowed him to rescue Hokuto in the first place. But now? This situation? Was there even anything good left in them?

There was actually nothing the other two could reply to that and they stared at each other in a loss of words until Hokuto was the one to speak up to their surprise.

“Then what if we changed?”

Hokuto had as much trouble as Taiga to remain conscious, especially because he had taken the heavier damage, but Taiga wouldn’t spare him any apologizing look.

“The first one who has to change is you,” Taiga yelled and pointed the sword at the other one. “You are as greedy as the rest of your clan. You let them hurt you like you are a worthless puppet and you do it just to get the light yourself. If you don’t treasure your own life, the light will never treasure you!”

Hokuto tried to get up, but his wounds were already too much for him to walk and the two guards wouldn’t let Taiga get close to him. When Juri walked up to Taiga he lifted his sword towards him right away, but when Juri easily hit it out of his hand he realized that he had reached his limits.

“Fine, you have made your point clear and even though you took so much damage the light didn’t help you out today and I can’t deny that it might be indeed our fault that it doesn’t want to show itself.”

Taiga would have laughed at the other one for the sudden change of mind, but his outburst had been for this purpose so he should be grateful that it worked.

“Let’s see if you can really change to reach your goal,” Taiga hissed at the other one and Juri’s eye twitched on getting provoked, but he tried hard to not start another fight.

“I guess we should call it a day?” Jesse asked and walked up to Hokuto who had given up on getting up and was now bending to the front. When Jesse tried to help him up he raised an eyebrow.

“Hokuto?” Jesse asked a bit worried as he patted him on the shoulder, but didn’t get any reaction.

Before Juri could walk up to them to see what was going on Taiga collapsed towards his direction and he was forced on his knees to somehow break his fall.

“Hey, you can’t pass out yet. You need to heal both of you,” Juri yelled at the other one, but Taiga was barely conscious while Hokuto had already lost consciousness. Jesse lifted the boy up and brought him over to Taiga, placing him right next to him.

“You want me to heal him so that he doesn’t die or do you want me to heal him so that I don’t die and the light disappears with me?”

Juri seemed more than irritated by the way Taiga still provoked him even though his life was on the line. If Taiga passed out now they could indeed both die.

Juri struggled with finding a reply and when he seemed ready to say something Taiga shook his head and stretched his hand out, placing it on Hokuto’s stomach.

“Think about your reply, I give you only one chance. Don’t waste it.”

Juri remained silent after hearing that and Taiga begged the light to show up and help them out, because for once he wanted to give them a second chance and see what their plan from now on was.

Luck was on his side when the light finally showed itself to them again and without even knowing if it would work he moved his hand from Hokuto’s stomach to Jesse’s hand which rested on the boy’s shoulder while he put his other hand on Juri’s arm.

Both of them gave Taiga a sceptic look until they gasped and realized that the wounds they had gotten at the fight had disappeared as well.

“Remember that all this happens, because the light wants it to,” Taiga reminded them. “If you force the light on a dark way it might abandon you.” And with them it would abandon Taiga as well and he didn’t want that to happen. He just knew that this was a chance they had to grasp!


	5. Excitement

Finally Taiga woke up not being in pain and he refused to even open his eyes and just rolled to the other side of the bed and let out a long sigh.

“Are you awake?”

He was still too tired to even realize that the voice hadn’t been part of a dream and in confusion he opened his eyes, just to find Hokuto sitting on the chair at his desk.

“No jumping up and yelling at me why I am in your room?” Hokuto asked, almost disappointed when all Taiga did was falling on his back and rubbing his eyes.

“It’s not like this is a guest room, so I can’t really control who is entering at what time, right?”

“You have a nice bed and food, so I would say it is pretty much like a guest room,” Hokuto countered on which Taiga rolled back on his side and rested his head on his palm with a playful expression. “Then tell me why the lock is at the outside of the door and not on my side?”

“Touché,” Hokuto let out and fell back against the backrest of the chair and looked at the food he had put on the table. “I brought you breakfast. There is no training going to happen today.”

“Training, right. More like no torturing happening,” Taiga let out, but still didn’t bother to get up. It was weird how they had such a normal conversation after the chaos the day before, but maybe his outburst had indeed had an effect on Hokuto and maybe even on Juri and Jesse, because at least for one day they weren’t stubborn enough to go through with their ridiculous try to force the light to show itself.

“Is there anything else?” Taiga asked when Hokuto didn’t make any move to leave the room and he didn’t miss the troubled expression of the other one, but as so often it wasn’t that easy to make Hokuto spill his thoughts.

“Your arm,” Hokuto said, on which Taiga lifted an eyebrow in confusion before he pulled his sleeve up just to realize that the bandage he had had on it before was gone, together with the rest of his bandages. “I took them off after you healed both of us. The healing must have exhausted you so you collapsed in the training room. But I wanted to check if your wounds had healed as well.”

There was still a lot of confusion written on Taiga’s face and a bit reluctant Hokuto pulled his sleeve up making Taiga bite his lip, finally remembering that there had been this pretty stupid incident and the words were still engraved in Hokuto’s forearm. After two healings the light had still left it exactly where it was.

“Did you leave it on purpose?”

Sure that was the easiest to say to make it sound like Taiga had the control about what wounds to heal, but did he want to lie that straight forward? On the other hand he couldn’t just tell Hokuto the truth about the healing ability he possessed for himself without Hokuto getting healed.

“You know I think the light wants to remind you how stupid that move was,” Taiga let out instead and for the first time he saw some agreement in the other one’s eyes as Hokuto sighed and moved his hand through his hair before he stared down at his arm. “Guess I have to live with these scars then to remind myself to think first before acting.”

“Are you saying that you came up with this idea?”

The atmosphere in the room was slowly tensing again, but it was too early to actually have another fight and Taiga was too burned out from the day before, so he let the topic drop when Hokuto just looked away.

“I could heal it for you,” he said instead. If it was true or not he didn’t know, but he could use it for now and Hokuto immediately looked over to him with a hopeful expression, but then his look darkened again.

“You could I am sure of that, but I doubt you will.”

“Maybe I will if you do me a favor?”

Now Hokuto was all ears and Taiga finally sat up and put on a challenging expression. “I want to go on a walk.”

“A walk?”

“Yes, that’s all. I am in this room for days now and didn’t see more than the way up to this room and the way to the training room. Let me walk outside for a bit today then I might change my mind and heal you.”

The bait seemed to be working as Hokuto’s mind started racing and he gave the idea a long thought before he got up and approached the door. “Wait here for a moment.”

“As if I could go anywhere on my own,” Taiga said to himself after Hokuto had closed the door already.

Taiga used his moment of absence to get changed, but before he could get into his shirt Hokuto opened the door once more, this time without knocking, while he had knocked last time. But it didn’t seem like he wanted to be rude, but was just in a hurry.

While Taiga didn’t even mind, Hokuto looked away with an awkward hawk before he turned around to close the door and waited until Taiga was completely dressed.

“So am I getting my walk?” Taiga asked with a teasing expression and Hokuto finally turned back to him and while Taiga knew that the object in Hokuto’s hands meant he would indeed get his walk it also meant he wouldn’t get it as an equal person, but more like a dog on a leash, but for now he would take what he could get.

“Juri said it was okay, but the handcuffs have to stay on,” Hokuto let out as if he was the one who had to wear them. “And Jesse will watch us.”

“Now I even need two babysitters, great,” Taiga joked, but of course he knew that he was in enemies territories so there was no way they would take the chance to let a Rei-clan member run around free inside their walls. “Well, then let’s go.”

Hokuto seemed a bit surprised that Taiga actually took the weird offer and stretched out his hands. When they walked outside Jesse was waiting for them already, but he remained on distance.

When they walked down the long staircase from the upper caves Taiga could finally see over the inner circle behind their huge front walls. It had been night when he had been brought here and he had never been this close to the Mi-clan before.

“It doesn’t actually look as bad at daytime,” Taiga voiced out his thoughts on which Hokuto could just shrug his shoulders.

“I am not sure what you are used to, but for me it never looks bad,” Hokuto replied honestly as they stepped into the lower streets and soon more people crossed their way.

“We have a way bigger place in our inner circle, with a big river and a lot of trees. With the huge mountains in the back and the sun barely reaching in the caves it all just feels a bit crushing.”

Hokuto seemed to understand that feeling even though he was of course used to it as this was the only place he had ever called home.

After another staircase Hokuto stopped and pointed at some buildings, explaining to Taiga that the important meetings were held back in the caves, because they were the safest, but the people living on the lower grounds in the inner circle would use a big hall in the center for meetings and there were indeed a lot more people down here then Taiga had seen up at the caves. Not that it surprised him, because for their clan the warriors were also located a bit away from the main part of the inner circle to give the common people a bit space, because no matter if they were from the same clan or not, it was always a bit weird to have warriors around all the time and the Mi-clan seemed to feel the same.

Taiga wanted to tell Hokuto about the Rei-clan as he felt happy about the other one being so open and talkative for once in a while, but they were interrupted by something coming flying towards them, but none of them had seen it coming until Taiga hissed and held the side of his head.

“What the-” Hokuto let out annoyed, seeing the stone on the ground, but whoever had thrown it had vanished into the crowd again and Hokuto gave Jesse a side glance on which the latter tried to get a bit closer and between all the people to see if he could find out who had thrown the stone and prevent worse in case some of their clan members were angered by Taiga’s presents.

“Are you okay?” Hokuto asked worriedly and looked at the small red spot on Taiga’s temple, but to his surprise Taiga let out a chuckle and Hokuto lifted an eyebrow before Taiga pointed back at the other one.

“You would know if you worried for yourself.”

The realization of that made Hokuto reach out for his own temple. He had been so focused on Taiga that he hadn’t even realized his own pain, which also meant that it hadn’t been as bad as he thought.

“Then let’s keep moving, I fear as much as I should apologize for some of the Clan members, I can’t actually scold them for being angry that we let an outsider inside our walls and on top of that a Rei-clan member.”

“Sure, understandable,” Taiga let out, following Hokuto down the stairs, but stumbling a bit when Hokuto moved a bit too fast and pulled on the chains connected to the handcuffs.

As if he had totally forgotten about them Hokuto stopped once more before he took another look around. Taiga had realized all the piercing looks right from the start, but Hokuto was maybe too used to his own clan to realize the danger right from the start, but now he flicked his tongue as if he was annoyed by all the angry stares at Taiga.

With the next move Hokuto got out of his jacket and stepped right next to Taiga, pulling the other one closer and throwing the jacket over the chain and handcuffs, so no one could actually see them. To keep the chain as hidden as possible Hokuto kept walking right next to Taiga and for the first time the older one felt a bit awkward in the other one’s presence.

After the made it close to the main hall more people crossed their way, but Taiga realized that a lot of them realized that he wasn’t one of them, maybe they even recognized his Rei-clan clothes yet not all of them seemed to hate him. Taiga was impressed how lively the whole Mi-clan territory was and while Hokuto was of course not allowing him outside the walls in the outer circles he was happy to see that not everyone seemed to hate him just because he was from the Rei-clan.

“What’s the dark look for? Do you want to go back instead?” Hokuto asked while Taiga looked a bit absentminded around the open space around the center hall. It took him a moment to even realize that he had spaced out and he hurried to shake his head.

“No, sorry it’s nothing.” Which was a lie of course. His own thoughts had reminded him of the fact that the Rei-clan usually saw the Mi-clan as an ultimate enemy. There was nothing but hate and destruction between them for centuries and while the way they actually greedily tried to make the light their own, even hurting their own comrade and not caring at all for Taiga as a human being, but only as the carrier of the light, he somehow hoped that maybe things could change after all.

“I think we should head back before it gets dark,” Hokuto let out casual and Taiga approved in silence, walking next to him with the chains still hidden under Hokuto’s jacket over his wrists.

“Did you tell your clan members about the light?” Taiga asked on their way back and Hokuto shook his head.

“Except for the warriors now one knows about the light, at least not officially. I think word has spread here and there. That you are from the Rei-clan and that there is some kind of reason for you to be here is obvious to everyone.”

“I wonder how my clan would react if I suddenly brought you into our territory.”

Instead of replying, Hokuto’s look turned a bit confused as if he hadn’t understood that Taiga didn’t actually mean that for real, because why would he ever risk bringing a Mi-clan member to their territory?

“Is your head okay?”

Again a question that made Taiga slightly chuckle, but this time he couldn’t hold back a more serious comment. “You know if you worry for such a small wound why did you let the others hurt both of us that badly until now?”

Silence. An understandable silence, because it was obvious that Hokuto didn’t want to answer that or maybe he really didn’t know the answer himself.

“There were moments I asked them to stop,” he finally let out and Taiga recalled one of those moments, but it was only a short weak moment, too hesitant to actually count in his opinion.

“To be honest I think I should apologize to you before actually accusing you of doing all this stupid stuff,” Taiga let out to the other one’s obvious surprise. “I mean we found out about our connection through a coincidence. Kochi was the one who figured it out and he also used it while I scolded him for it, but I also didn’t stop him.”

“You didn’t stop him, because you trust him,” Hokuto concluded and Taiga knew it was the same for him, but the way Juri and Jesse used the connection was too harsh for Taiga, but maybe there was just too much about the Mi-clan he didn’t understand yet to actually be able to judge their behavior.

When they reached the last long staircase with two high walls from the mountains giving no place to go but straight up Hokuto suddenly stopped and pulled his jacket away before he opened the handcuffs without any comment and kept walking.

Taiga looked a bit confused and turned back to Jesse who was following them at some distance, but then he understood, because Jesse was blocking his way back and there was no escape to the side. There was no need for the handcuffs anymore so close to the caves. They didn’t talk until they reached Taiga’s room and Jesse waited outside.

“Thank you,” Taiga said, rubbing his wrists to signal that he didn’t mean just the walk itself, but also the small gesture of taking off the handcuffs. “I am really grateful that you taught me so much about your clan, I will definitely repay you and teach you about mine if you want that of course.”

Hokuto didn’t nod, but he also didn’t seem like he was against the idea. The walk had been for a purpose after all, which made Taiga remember his promise and he sat down on his bed and pointed next to him. “As promised I will heal it for you.”

Of course he still didn’t know if he could or more like if the light would let him, but he was more than willing to give it a try after finally spending one calm day in this dark environment.

First Hokuto made a step towards him, but then he looked a bit unsure out of a sudden before he shook his head. “Not today, but I will definitely ask for it at some point.”

Once more Hokuto had crawled back in his shell, leaving Taiga in a bit of confusion when he left the room in a hurry and locked the door.

***

“Do I have to be scared?”

It was a fair question after everything Juri had done until now was coming up with ways to hurt Taiga, so he wasn’t that happy to see him entering his room the next day.

“If you don’t try anything stupid, no,” Juri replied casually and after the day before had been actually nice with Hokuto accompanying him on his walk he wouldn’t start a ridiculous argument with Juri about his annoying choice of words, at least not for now.

“So did you come up with a new painful way to try and force the light to show itself?”

It wouldn’t be surprising if he indeed did, but Juri just rolled his eyes before he waved his hand and stepped a bit back. “Come with me.”

At least he didn’t sound as demanding and scary as usual, but that didn’t take Taiga’s suspicions away. This time they didn’t walk over to the cave they had trained in before. Instead Juri moved up another staircase towards an even deeper cave Taiga hadn’t seen before. When they made their way inside a big room there were a lot of the Mi-clan warriors present, all of them focused on their training, but of course some of them gave Taiga a side-glance when he entered. He also spotted Hokuto and Jesse, stopping their training when they saw them entering and walking up to them.

“I guess we can start then?” Jesse said before Taiga had even got any explanation and raised an eyebrow.

“Start what?”

“Your training,” Juri replied and this time Taiga let out something between a snort and a laugh.

“Excuse me? And here I thought we were done with all this torture stuff.”

“That’s not the training we are talking about,” Hokuto said after he had walked away from them, just to come back with some clothes he held out to Taiga.

He recognized the clothes immediately, all of them were wearing the black uniforms for training and on missions. The red lines on the seams showing that they were from the Mi-clan. Taiga was still dressed in the Rei-clan clothes, a similar kind of uniform, yet it had a light grey color with white seams, the official color of their clan.

“Wait, you want me to train with the Mi-clan?”

“Yes, we thought it might be a good idea to find a better way to communicate and build trust and understanding.” Jesse smiled brightly on his own words as if he really believed it was that easy, especially after they had all tried to almost kill him for the past week and not to forget the years of fighting between the clans.

On the other hand he preferred this offer way more than how things had gone until now and there was no good reason to refuse if he was already stuck here he could use the time and train and actually learn more about the Mi-clan.

“Fine, but under one condition,” Taiga demanded and he could see how Juri tried hard not to roll his eyes.

“Which would be?”

“I want to train with Hokuto.”

“What? Why?” Hokuto asked perplexed, but as expected Juri seemed to have seen his request coming.

“Fine with me. Then get ready.”

Juri and Jesse left to train with the others while Hokuto grabbed Taiga by the arm and pulled him a bit away from everyone.

“Why did you request this?”

“Isn’t it obvious? If we train at the same time, but not with each other we never know when we will get hurt. Do you think I never noticed when you trained while I was in my room?”

Finally understanding what Taiga meant, Hokuto’s look turned a bit darker. Not that it was his fault for getting hurt at the training and hurting Taiga with it, but he had been indeed too ignorant about it.

“Let me change into this and I will be right back.”

Hokuto still seemed a bit unsure about the whole thing and Taiga wondered if he shouldn’t be happy that Juri would stop hurting him? On another thought Taiga was the one whose look darkened. Maybe Hokuto’s uncertainty didn’t come from that problem. Maybe...he really just didn’t want to train with Taiga…

***

All the eyes resting on them every training wasn’t making things easier, but finally Hokuto was smiling when they trained. It had taken three days for the other one to even take the training seriously, but Taiga had requested another walk the evening before and luckily Juri had allowed it and since then Hokuto had finally brightened up a bit.

Taiga had made sure to explain more about the Rei-clan on their walk, to repay the favor of explaining about the Mi-clan and Hokuto had seemed like he had enjoyed the walk and all the talking, but of course each time he had realized that he was enjoying the time with Taiga he had fallen quiet again.

“Not this time,” Hokuto said with a lopsided smile as he saw Taiga’s move coming after he had failed two times the other day.

“Then next time,” Taiga said, shrugging his shoulders and dashed to the front with the 2m long rod he had been handed to train with to get better in other martial arts as well and not just favor his bow.

Hokuto had the same weapon, blocking Taiga’s attacks as good as he could and while he had been superior for the first day, because he had been used to the weapon, Taiga had easily made it his own.

With a swift movement Taiga let his rod slash down on Hokuto’s shin, knowing that the pain would hit him too. In defense Hokuto brought the rod down on Taiga’s shoulder, but while Taiga had planned everything up until here, Hokuto had only reacted out of reflex and was now pulling back, hissing and holding his shoulder.

“Got you,” Taiga said with a triumphing smile and crouched down to sweep away Hokuto’s legs. Before Hokuto could get his orientation back Taiga had the rod pointed at his face. “Third straight win for me today.”

“Don’t get too cocky or I'll pair you up with Jesse,” Juri warned from the side and all Taiga did was stretch out his tongue towards him on which Jesse burst out laughing. A few days ago a light and teasing conversation like this wouldn’t have been possible between them, so it still hit Taiga after he acted so natural that he should maybe be more careful.

“Are you just standing there or are you actually helping me up?” Hokuto complained and with a teasing smile Taiga turned and held out his hand, pulling the other one up.

“That’s all for today,” Juri announced and Taiga got ready to get back to his room. For a few days now he was allowed to get back on his own, but of course he realized that he was still being watched.

“Taiga?” Hokuto asked when the other one headed for the door and turned on the other one’s question. “Sorry, I- ehm, I wondered if you want to go for another walk? If you are tired though then of course another day is also totally fine,” Hokuto muttered more to himself than letting Taiga reply, while he kept his hand on his shoulder.

“Sure, let’s go.”

Taiga’s direct reply made Hokuto search for words for a moment before he nodded and hurried to join the other one at the doors.

When Taiga stepped closer to him and stretched out his hand Hokuto made a step back, facing him with a confused expression, which Taiga would almost call cute, but of course just almost.

“Show me your shoulder, I know that it hurts,” Taiga said and finally Hokuto removed his own hand and let Taiga heal their training wounds. Even when Taiga pulled his hand away the light remained in his hand for a bit longer and Hokuto looked at it in pure fascination as if he could still not believe that it existed in the first place. With a small movement Hokuto lifted his hand and wanted to touch Taiga’s hand, but then he stopped and pulled away.

“It won’t vanish just because you touch me,” Taiga explained, but maybe that hadn’t been the reason why he had pulled away.

It had become so natural for them to be around each other and the light had shown itself without any trouble as well. Juri was pleased to see that the light even showed up when the others were around and luckily he didn’t ask Taiga to use it for fighting again, at least for now.

“Is there anywhere you want to go?” Hokuto asked as they walked down from the caves.

“Good question. I’ve seen most of the inner circle already, right?” Taiga said in his thoughts when Hokuto suddenly stopped when they weren’t even half down the stairs.

“Could you wait one second?”

“Yes, I guess so?” Taiga said while Hokuto was already dashing back up the stairs with an excited expression, which made Taiga raise an eyebrow in confusion while he kept waiting for him to return. A few minutes later he came back with a bright smile and hit Taiga on the shoulder and waved at him. “Follow me.”

“Where to?”

“That’s a surprise.”

Taiga didn’t even have time to reply anything, because he had to run after Hokuto to not lose track of him.

“You are too slow,” Hokuto complained and stopped until Taiga had caught up to him just to grab the older one’s wrist to drag him along.

It was when they had dashed down all the way to the gates that Taiga realized what was going on and he made Hokuto slow down. “Are we going out of the inner circle?”

“Yes indeed.”

“Did Juri agree to that?”

“That’s what I asked for earlier and let’s say we have a babysitter,” Hokuto said with a chuckle and pointed behind him where Taiga could spot Jesse after a moment.

He wasn’t angry that they sent Jesse after them, because he hadn’t thought they were allowed out of the inner circle in the first place.

“There is a place I want to show you.”

Taiga hurried after the other one who didn’t stop running even when Taiga yelled after him to slow down. But instead of feeling annoyed, Taiga showed the other one a smile the whole way. After all it was rare to see Hokuto this excited and carefree about something and somehow Taiga was happy about the fact that he was part of that excitement.


	6. Emotional Chaos

It took them good an hour to finally leave the mountain area surrounding the Mi-Clan territory behind them and Taiga recognized the surrounding, but instead of getting closer to the Rei-Clan Hokuto took a steep path over one more hill.

“Are you sure you know where you are going?” Taiga asked, a bit skeptical when they kept walking through thick forest without any visible path ahead of them.

“Trust me,” Hokuto said confident and Taiga needed to bite back a stupid reply, because as much as he felt a bit more comfortable around the Mi-Clan recently there was no way he could actually trust Hokuto. On the other hand this wasn’t any kind of life or death situation so such a comment would just ruin the light mood.

“We are here,” Hokuto announced and stopped, turning back to Taiga who lifted an eyebrow in confusion, because all he could see were more trees around them, but then Hokuto stepped aside and told him to keep walking. Still a bit confused about the place Hokuto wanted to show him Taiga did how he was told and after leaving a few more trees behind him he could finally hear the sound of water!. A river! And it was not just any river.

“Is this the Kihin?” Taiga asked, astonished and Hokuto nodded with a bright smile as he stepped next to the other one on the rocky surface of the riverbank.

“In all its beauty,” Hokuto replied and watched Taiga getting closer to the river.

The riverbank was several meters wide, the stone smooth and of pure white color, formed over thousands of years by the slowly falling and rising water of the river.

“Its water is so beautiful,” Taiga let out as he dared his hand into the water, which wasn’t as cold as he expected it to be. The water of the Kihin was the purest in the country, but most of its parts were hidden in the mountains, impossible to reach and too fast flowing to even get close to it. At this part though the river was wide and slow flowing and the silver gleam of the surface was even more beautiful from close up.

“You said you had a river flowing through the territory of your clan,” Hokuto said. Taiga was astonished that the other one even remembered such a small detail from their talk.

“If you thought I missed it you could have walked with me to any river close by.”

“Well, I found this place years ago and while the others didn’t actually share my excitement over this place I thought you would appreciate it.”

“I do indeed,” Taiga let out with a smile before he looked up at the other one with a more teasing expression. “I didn’t expect you to appreciate such a place though.”

The statement took Hokuto by surprise and he turned around, trying to overplay that he felt a bit caught and tried to spot Jesse instead who was close by of course, but made sure to keep his distance and don’t be too obvious.

“Is it not common for your clan members to just appreciate the beauty of nature?”

“No-, well, I mean it’s not of importance, so we don’t really care,” Hokuto stumbled over his own words.

“But you care.”

“I-, I just liked this place, because it is so peaceful and sometimes I just want to be away from everything.”

“Everything?” Taiga asked curiously and it didn’t take long until Hokuto kept walking up and down the riverbank, biting his lip. He was talking too much and he knew that, but somehow with Taiga he had started talking more openly and the older one liked that, but of course Hokuto knew that Jesse was there and he would get into trouble if he talked too much and acted too carefree.

Not wanting to ruin the light atmosphere they shared for once Taiga jumped up and started undressing, on which Hokuto’s look turned to confused and slightly panicked.

“What are you doing?” He asked while Taiga threw his shoes and shirt on the riverbank before he gave Hokuto a challenging look. Instead of answering his question he just took a run up to the edge of the riverbank and jumped into the water.

Hokuto kept looking forth and back between Taiga and the forest lying behind them where Jesse was definitely hiding somewhere, but the fact that he wasn’t actually trying to be seen meant that maybe he wouldn’t interfere.

“Are you coming or can’t you swim?” Taiga teased while he kept swimming more towards the deeper part of the river. The stream was so calm at this part that it didn’t take much effort to stay at the same spot, but the river was so wide that it would actually take some time to make it to the other side. It would even be difficult for Jesse to spot them if they made it to the other side.

A bit hesitant, Hokuto took his shirt off and made it closer to the water after putting his shoes on a safe distance. Still a bit unsure about getting in, Hokuto took a few careful steps inside the river, but when he was barely in until his hips, Taiga made his way back to him and grabbed him by the wrist without a warning and pulled him to the front. With a squeal Hokuto landed face first in the water and Taiga bursted out in laughter while Hokuto started coughing after swallowing a bit of water.

“Not used to swimming, I guess?” Taiga teased again, but this time Hokuto gave the other one a challenging look.

“Just because we have no river in our clan doesn’t mean I am a bad swimmer.”

“Oh, you want to show me then? How about we race to the other side?”

Hokuto still seemed a bit unsure about their carefree swim, but he was the one who brought Taiga here in the first place and now they were already in the water anyway.

“Fine, but don’t pout at me after losing.”

On the confident statement Taiga let out a chuckle before he swam back to Hokuto so they would have an even start point. “Don’t worry, I am not a bad loser, but you can come crying on my shoulder later.”

Both exchanged another teasing look before they started their race. At first there was not much difference in their speed, but when they passed around half the river Hokuto slightly got the lead, but Taiga wouldn’t just give up. Once more he caught up to him, but in the end it was Hokuto who reached the stone riverbank on the other side first and turned around with a satisfied smile as Taiga touched the riverbank with his hand just seconds later.

The river was too deep to stand even at the riverbank so Hokuto put his back against the low stones. “You want to come crying to me now?” He asked, spreading his arms.

First Taiga wanted to let out a mocking no, but then he caught himself staring at Hokuto’s upper body, because with those strong upper body muscles it was no miracle that he had won and without knowing what was even coming over him he was swimming over to the other one. Hokuto held his breath when Taiga took the invitation and hugged the other one. “Hey, do I not get comforted even though I lost?” Taiga pouted and finally Hokuto relaxed a bit after the first shock that Taiga had actually taken the invitation and he put his hand up on Taiga’s hair.

“You are not really going to cry, are you?” Their teasing continued of course, but when Taiga hit the other one against the chest he left his hand there and Hokuto didn’t seem to mind.

“What would you do if I did?” Taiga asked as he pulled back from the hug, but left his hand on the other one’s chest, feeling how Hokuto’s heartbeat seemed to speed up even though their race was already over.

“I don’t know how to comfort people,” Hokuto let out a bit more serious this time as he kept staring back at the other one. There was no way Taiga’s hand was actually warm as they were in the cold water, but somehow it felt as if his touch was warming up the other one’s chest.

“Then be creative? I will let you know in case I don’t like your comfort.”

It sounded so challenging, yet Taiga lost the contact to Hokuto’s eyes for a second, a small sign of embarrassment. It was the very first time Hokuto saw such a soft expression on the other one and before he could actually look away too, he leant to the front instead, catching the other one’s lips with his. The kiss was rushed and Hokuto backed off again before Taiga could even react to what had happened. This time it was Hokuto’s turn to look away in embarrassment and he felt so stupid. When he felt how Taiga removed his hand from his chest he felt even worse. Had he made him angry? Yet it came different when Taiga’s hand found its way to the other one’s face instead and made him look up.

“If this is how you comfort someone then do it at least right?”

It wasn’t like Taiga moved confident, but he at least tried to make it less awkward this time as he was the one to lean in first, but Hokuto met him halfway for the kiss already.

Another soft kiss, still too hesitant to call it passionate, yet they both lost their eye contact again when they pulled back a second time.

“I guess it’s time for a rematch?” Taiga asked after a weird moment of silence.

“What?” Hokuto asked, so confused that Taiga almost started laughing.

“You know if I win this time I get to comfort you, just...if you feel like you need comfort after losing?”

Their conversation was turning so awkward, yet teasing each other was their only way of communicating at the moment without falling silent in embarrassment.

“Well I guess you will need double the comfort after losing twice then?” Hokuto asked with a bit more confidence this time and Taiga snorted on the other one’s confident look.

“Give me a few more minutes to recover and I will show you a real race.”

Hokuto chuckled on hearing that before he put his elbows up on the rock behind him and pulled himself up on the riverbank. “Good luck recovering down there.”

“Playing dirty now? Is that the only way you are confident to win again?” Taiga teased back before he stretched his arm out. “And now help me up.”

“Oh getting demanding even though you lost?” Hokuto laughed, but still stretched his arm out to help the other one up on the rocks. Unfortunately the surface was pretty slippery and just before Taiga could actually get a safe balance on it he slipped. Hokuto tried to stop him from falling completely back into the water, but a sudden pain on his leg made him hiss and let go of the other one who was back in the water, forming a pained expression. Hokuto looked down on his own leg, seeing some blood dripping to the stone floor and he immediately caught up to the situation.

“Did you cut your leg?”

“Sorry, there was a sharp edge somewhere underwater,” Taiga said, trying hard to keep swimming while his leg seemed to hurt really bad and of course Hokuto knew that as he shared the pain.

“Let’s get back to the other side before the wound makes you unable to swim,” Hokuto said and jumped back into the water.

“Idiot, you are hurt too.”

“And for once it wasn’t on purpose,” Hokuto let out, realizing the next second how that must have sounded and their light mood slightly got exchanged by a gloomier one. “Anyway, let’s hurry back.”

They took it slow to get over to the other side and even though Hokuto’s wound was slightly worse than Taiga’s, he was also the one to help Taiga back on the riverbank.

“Let me see,” Hokuto said and crouched down next to Taiga’s leg, gently pushing the trousers a bit up to the other one’s knee. “Mh, seems like you hit that stone pretty good.”

“Shall I be proud of that now?” Taiga asked, this time again a bit more teasing and Hokuto formed a smile before he sat down next to the other one to have a look at his own wound, which was of course looking the same.

“We can ask Jesse to help you back,” Hokuto said and looked for the other one, but he could still not spot him so maybe Jesse hadn’t even realized yet what was going on.

“And then you walk by yourself or what?” Taiga let out scolding, but when he tried to put his leg down he hissed and fell back into a sitting position.

“Don’t overdo it,” Hokuto said and put his hand back on the other one’s leg, even though he knew there was not much he could do, but he wanted to help! After everything they had made Taiga go through he wanted to help and he felt bad for not being able to. When he realized that he could of course ask Taiga to heal them both he felt even guiltier. Just before he wanted to withdraw his hand he gasped, feeling something in his chest that couldn’t be described as pain, but nevertheless it made him panic a bit as he raised his other hand to his chest.

“All good? What’s going on?” Taiga asked alarmed as well, but then they both gasped as it was Hokuto’s hand, which suddenly glowed and healed Taiga’s and his own leg.

They both fell silent and looked in shock at their legs before Taiga was the one to actually form a smile. “I guess the light finally accepted you?”

“But- why? How? I mean…”

“Because for once you wanted to help and not to hurt?” Taiga said without any outrights and Hokuto knew he was right, but it was still feeling weird.

When Taiga reached out for his arm the younger one slightly flinched, but let Taiga take a closer look at it. “I think it’s time we finally get rid of this?”

The words were still engraved in his forearm and Hokuto bit his lip, not sure if he actually deserved it being erased yet, but he didn’t stop Taiga when he put his hand over the words, which had hurt Taiga not just physically and let the light finally erase one of their heavy memories.

“Great, I would say we are good to go?” Taiga said with a bright smile. So bright, that Hokuto kept staring at him for a while until Taiga grabbed their clothes and threw Hokuto’s top at him.

Before Taiga could actually walk over to grab their shoes they could hear noises from the mountain in front of them and they immediately exchanged a knowing look. They didn’t bring any weapons, but what they were hearing were fighting noises so they kept trying to locate where the sounds were coming from.

“What is going on?” Taiga asked a bit alarmed while Hokuto stepped next to him.

“That might explain why Jesse wasn’t around. He might have realized that someone was close by.”

It was then that the fighting noise suddenly stopped, but then there was that one small sound Taiga was so familiar with that he reacted immediately.

“GET DOWN.”

Taiga shoved the other one to the ground right before an arrow made its way out of the forest.

“Dude, who are you aiming for?”

“Then don’t dodge, you asshole!”

Taiga recognized the voices behind them, but he had other things to worry about and Hokuto realized that the moment he tried to push Taiga off him, but pulled his arm back with a hiss on some pain in the back of his shoulder.

“Oh no,” Hokuto let out in shock, looking up and finding the arrow stuck in the back of Taiga’s shoulder.

“Don’t run away, come back here!”

“Hokuto, time to go,” Jesse yelled as he dashed out of the forest. “What the hell…”

“Coward, come back- TAIGA!”

“Oh damn, worst aim ever…”

Kochi’s worried shouting and Shintaro’s self-scolding reached Taiga, but he was trying not to move too much as the pain of the arrow made every movement hurt a lot.

Jesse also hurried towards them and whatever reason those three had fought for earlier, they luckily stopped for now.

“Don’t move him,” Hokuto said warningly as the others tried to reach out for him.

“Ehm, sorry if this is a weird question in this situation, but while I understand that I accidently hit Taiga, why the hell are you both half naked?”

Shintaro’s question was indeed more than out of context and even Kochi rolled his eyes and hit the other one on the back of the head.

“Can we discuss that later?” Kochi asked as he crouched down next to Taiga and Hokuto. “We will take the arrow out and bring you back home for treatment, okay?”

“Your clan is way too far away for that,” Jesse let out scolding.

“Your clan is also an hour away,” Shintaro added.

“Better an hour than three. Which makes me wonder what you did around this area in the first place?”

“Stop fighting!” Hokuto and Taiga let out in union and all three immediately cut it out and concentrated back on them.

“One of us can heal both of us after they take the arrow out,” Hokuto suggested in a low voice, so that the others didn’t hear him, but Taiga shook his head.

“Not this time.”

He didn’t even know why he was actually hesitating using the light, because all of them knew he could do it. But somehow Hokuto seemed to understand and let the topic drop.

“Okay, ready?” Kochi asked as he put his hand around the arrow, making Taiga arch is back in pain, while Jesse tried to keep Hokuto steady on the ground as he was also in pain through the movement.

Before Taiga could even reply, Kochi had pulled the arrow out, making Taiga hiss. Shintaro hurried to lift Taiga off the other one and take a look at the wound he had caused him, while Jesse did the same with Hokuto.

“Can’t you heal yourself?” Kochi asked while the Mi-clan members couldn’t hear them. There it was! Heal him! Not Hokuto, just himself.

“It’s not that bad and well there is some trouble here and there with the light,” Taiga let out, knowing that it wasn’t all a lie. After all there had been some time when the light refused to help them through the way the Mi-Clan had treated him. “For now let’s head back to the Mi-clan.”

Both his clan members seemed confused about Taiga actually agreeing on going back there, not that he had been running away from there in the first place, which made him look up at his friends.

“By the way, what were you doing here in the first place? And why did you get in a fight with Jesse?”

When he didn’t get a reply he knew that they needed to have a talk. “I guess you should come with us.”

“What? To the Mi-clan?” Kochi asked, confused.

“You mind?” Taiga asked Jesse and Hokuto who exchanged a worried look at first, but then Hokuto nodded.

“It will be easier to make it back with their help and well they caused this in the first place, so I think it’s only fair to make them help.”

“Hey, I wasn’t aiming for him on purpose,” Shintaro pouted, but he also didn’t know that he had actually aimed for Hokuto and that Taiga had just jumped in front of him at the last moment.

“Fine, then let’s go,” Kochi said and grabbed Taiga’s clothes, but halted when he unfolded the top. “Are these Mi-clan clothes?”

“Of course they are. Did you expect me to wear my clothes for weeks without changing them?” Taiga replied, skipping the part that he was participating in their training. After all they needed to have a talk back at the clan anyway.

“Let’s go and no fighting on the way back!”


	7. A special connection

“Wait, what? You are training with them?” Kochi let out in disbelief after they had made it back to the Mi-clan. The two Rei-clan members had been greeted with a defensive atmosphere, but in the end Juri allowed them in, but they had to stay with Taiga locked in his room and while Shintaro wanted to make a huge ruckus at first, Taiga assured them that it was safe to stay, for now at least.

“Yes, at least for a few days now.”

“What happened before those few days?” Kochi asked as he sat down on the desk chair, while Taiga was resting on his bed, with his back on some pillows after they had bandaged his shoulder. Shintaro kept walking up and down next to the door, making them all feel a bit restless.

Taiga remained silent on that question, through which Kochi lifted an eyebrow. “They hurt you, didn’t they?”

“Let’s say they luckily figured out fast that the light wasn’t actually going to help them if they kept up their aggressive tries to make it show up.”

Kochi massaged his temples on hearing that and let out a sigh. “We should have come sooner.”

“So you weren’t in this area by coincidence after all,” Taiga said, knowing already that he was right.

“We were trying to find a way around, to sneak up on the Mi-clan without them noticing. It had been over two weeks Taiga. You don’t think we would just leave you with them for any longer without any contact?”

“You could have just asked?”

It was Shintaro who let out a weird sound on that and moved closer to the bed. “Oh sure, let’s walk up to the Mi-clan gates with just two people and ask Hi, we are Taiga’s friends, mind to let us in so we can check on him?”

Silence fell between all of them until Shintaro tilted his head. “Wait, this doesn’t sound as stupid as I thought it would.”

“Anyways, do you think they will just let you go back with us?”

There was actually the chance that they would. After all, for the first time Hokuto had been given the light as well, so the Mi-clan possessed it too now. If that was good or bad they would need to figure out over time. It could also throw them into another war, but something told Taiga that the light would immediately disappear again if they tried to use it for that purpose and they hadn’t talked things through yet either. Maybe Hokuto had only been able to use it once. If they told Juri and the others now maybe they would start uproar for nothing.

“Taiga?” Lost in his thoughts he didn’t realize how long he had stayed silent and he shook his head.

“Not yet I think. And to be honest now that we started to train together I have the feeling this could have a good outcome for the Rei-clan as well.”

“What you did at the river didn’t seem like training to me though,” Shintaro let out, receiving two death glares. “WHAT?”

“Okay, back to the topic. So you want to stay, do I get that right?”

Kochi was skeptical about the whole idea that was obvious, but Taiga couldn’t make any rushed decisions, before speaking with Hokuto in private once.

They got interrupted when Jesse opened the door and told them to come with him to meet with the others.

On the way over to the training place Shintaro kept being super excited about the caves and structure of the Mi-clan, while he was pouting earlier about having to come here. Jesse immediately got caught up in the other one’s hyper behavior and they both talked loudly about the history of the clan and the making of the different buildings and caves. Taiga had to smile at the way they looked like lifelong friends instead of sworn enemies.

They walked towards the training room when Taiga saw Hokuto walking down another corridor on the other side of the cave.

“I will be back in a second,” Taiga told Kochi who nodded a bit confused, yet he followed Jesse and Shintaro instead.

The sooner he could have a talk with Hokuto the better. If they both agreed on telling their clan members about the light then maybe Taiga could really leave back to the Rei-clan. On that thought he slowed down, why didn’t he feel relieved about the possibility to leave?

“Taiga?”

Almost jolting out of surprise when Hokuto was snapping his fingers right in front of his face the older one looked up.

“I called your name like three times. Were you looking for me?” Hokuto asked and kept turning back towards the corridor he had walked down before, but now one else was to be seen.

“Oh sorry, yes, I mean, it can wait for later if you are busy.”

“Is it about the light?” Hokuto already concluded, making Taiga bite his lip.

It was about the light, but not only about that, yet Taiga didn’t know where to start the conversation without feeling too awkward.

“Hey, training is starting. What takes you so long?” Jesse shouted down the corridor as he had obviously looked for them already.

Hokuto hurried to push Taiga down the corridor towards Jesse’s direction so he wouldn’t actually come to get them.

“Let’s talk tomorrow after the training? I will make sure that Shintaro and Kochi will get their own rooms and I will come and see you after the training.”

Taiga nodded while he kept walking, but he had to stop himself from asking why not today. Why did it have to wait until tomorrow? But of course he knew that things were still too chaotic with his friends just arriving. So for once he had to be patient.

***

"Shintaro are you sneaking away again?" Kochi scolded the other one who had run off with Jesse the first day after training already. It surprised Taiga that Juri had allowed all three of them to walk the Mi-clan’s inner circle freely. Well almost freely, as a Mi-Clan member had to watch over them at any time if they weren’t in their rooms.

"Shin, why are you not- oh, this is for- ehm, a special training’s exercise!" Jesse lied when he jumped up the stairs when Shintaro didn't follow him, but the swords he hid behind his back weren't for a real training, nevertheless Kochi waved his hand and with a thankful squeal Shintaro vanished with Jesse down to the city hall.

"It took them less than a day to become best buddies," Taiga said as he stopped next to his friend, but Kochi could only sigh and rub his temples.

Right on the first day Shintaro had run off with Jesse and somehow they had ended up giving lessons with wooden swords to the children, not that they weren't behaving the same age as them as well.

Kochi had requested to join the training with Hokuto and Taiga, but unfortunately that didn't work out as he had hoped as Kochi and Juri kept yelling at each other over the right way to handle the light so in the end Hokuto and Taiga had locked them both out.

"One week, as promised. It will be okay."

They had agreed that after a week had passed they would leave back to their clan, but before Juri could actually freak out completely they had agreed that Taiga would keep coming by to train and that they were also welcome to train at the Rei-clan. An offer that Jesse agreed to in excitement, while Juri refused immediately and Hokuto...well they would have a talk about exactly that now.

"You know that I won't trust them this easily."

"Oh, don't worry neither do I," Taiga said, but of course he got a skeptical look in return. He wasn't lying, because fact was that one strong connection didn't mean that the whole Mi-clan had changed overnight.

***

"Let me guess Kochi tried to convince you to leave?"

"Today he only told me to be careful who to trust," Taiga replied, a bit teasing when he entered his room, Hokuto already waiting for him. He was lying on the bed, facing the ceiling with a tired expression as their training had been quite intense.

"Weird, Juri told me the same."

When Taiga stopped in front of the bed they exchanged a brief look before they exchanged a teasing smile.

With a sigh Taiga sat down and Hokuto made a bit space for him, rolling on his side.

"What will they say when we tell them?” Hokuto asked.

"Are we going to tell them?"

Taiga's question made Hokuto's expression turn to a bit confused and Taiga bit his lip in return. "It's not like I think it's a bad idea, I just- what if it will change something? Especially now that you have the light too."

"Wait that was exactly what I meant," Hokuto said, confused.

"What?"

"I meant telling them about the light, what did you mean?"

From one second to the other Taiga felt like a complete idiot and he leant to the front, hiding his face in his hands with an embarrassed sigh.

"Oh...that topic…" Hokuto let out a bit embarrassed himself, because they didn't really have time to talk things through themselves yet. "I mean we don't have to tell them about us. But we also can if you want to, I mean if you feel it's - ehm, going to last."

Hokuto's nervous talking made Taiga turn and look up at him, but he wasn't actually angered by the other one's doubts, because he carried them as well. They had gotten carried away, but was that all? Was there more?

"You are lying on my bed, I feel like there is at least something more to happen. If it lasts or not depends on how good you are?"

Hokuto's expression was priceless on Taiga's straight forward words, but the confusion on his face was too much to keep a serious one and soon Taiga hid a smile behind his hand.

"You should have seen your face just now," Taiga teased the other one and first Hokuto seemed to turn slightly red, but when he sat up Taiga feared for a moment that he would leave, but it came different when he sat closer to Taiga instead.

"You realize that you just allowed me to top, right?"

This time it was Taiga's turn to show an awkward expression, but while he tried to somehow laugh it off as before Hokuto was either a pretty good actor or he was done joking around.

"I take Juri's talk about trust really seriously. So I ask you, can I trust you?"

Now it was obvious that Hokuto was indeed done joking around and Taiga had to try and slow his heartbeat, because while he had joked about the topic at first he couldn't deny that he had hoped for Hokuto to see the serious question behind it. Slowly Taiga nodded and gulped nervously when Hokuto leaned even closer.

"Then don't make me regret falling in love with someone I hated at first."

There was no time for any discussion about that topic, because Taiga's mind was taken off every other topic the moment Hokuto put his hand demanding on the back of Taiga's neck and pulled him into a greedy kiss.

There were doubts and hesitation on both sides, but they were too distracted by each other’s' touches to let them take the upper hand. The serious talk could wait.

Not giving Taiga the chance to back out from what he had said before Hokuto pushed Taiga on the sheets without breaking the kiss and blindly reached out for the other one's shirt.

Their shy first kiss at the river seemed like an eternity ago the way they barely managed to get rid of their shirts, because they both refused to break their kiss for unnecessary movements.

With a hiss Hokuto pulled back for the first time and he gave Taiga a confused yet excited look as he saw a blood drop forming on Taiga's lip before he tasted the one on his own lip.

Realizing exactly how intense this experience would be for both made Hokuto shiver and it was clear that Taiga shared the excitement as he pulled up his hands and clawed them into the other one's back. Just a second later it was Taiga who arched his back though and Hokuto formed an excited smile, unable to wait any longer.

The line between excitement and pain got more than blurry when Hokuto finally dared to push in. As expected their connection turned the situation into such an extraordinary experience that they both refused to let this end too soon.

Every movement, each thrust and all the small bites and clawing made them both shiver until Taiga could obviously not delay things anymore.

This time it wasn't even in any way pain, yet the sensation filling Hokuto's own body when touching Taiga for the first time was too much for him to take.

To no one's surprise they reached their climax at perfect sync and Hokuto collapsed on his side, giving Taiga some space so they could both get in control of their breathing pace.

"We're not telling them about this, are we?" Taiga asked between heavy breaths and Hokuto laughed.

"Never."


	8. Trust

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Shintaro asked while following Hokuto and Taiga who rushed towards the training room.

“Oh maybe because you just told us that you let Kochi talk to Juri ALONE? You know that those two could kill each other at any second, right?” Taiga scolded his friend. After all Juri and Kochi were the two they had to watch out for the most.

When they got closer to the training room there were no fighting noises to be heard, which could be good or extremely bad. Hokuto pushed the doors open in a hurry ready to jump in between them if necessary.

“Okay here we go, I attack first,” Shintaro yelled and already drew his sword without even looking through the room, so Taiga grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him back.

“Idiot, if you attack now you are the one starting a fight.”

“Why would you want to start a fight?” Kochi asked back, crossing his arms to his chests.

“And why are you getting in here without permission?” Juri scolded all three of them, making them exchange a confused look.

“Well, ehm, we were worried,” Taiga replied honestly. “But, I think we can take our leave now.”

“What, but-“ Shintaro wanted to protest, but Hokuto got the hint and helped Taiga to shove the other one out of the room and closed the door.

“What was that for?” Shintaro hissed.

“For once those two seem to have a normal conversation, you want to ruin that?” Taiga asked. Juri and Kochi had been standing at the table with the strategical locations and paths from the Mi territory and just the fact that Juri seemed to trust Kochi enough by now to let him take a look at it and discuss about it made Taiga form a smile.

“So I guess not just Hokuto will visit us at the Rei-Clan from now on then?” Shintaro added, already excited, because Jesse had also promised to visit them as they were planning on leaving the next day already.

Hokuto and Taiga exchanged a look in silence while Shintaro left them to look for Jesse. It was weird how the week had passed this fast and yet they still hadn’t decided on a solution regarding the light.

Back in Taiga’s room Hokuto started playing with the light in his own hand, still fascinated how he could actually control the light by now. Taiga kept observing him, yet none of them looked too excited about the light as they wanted to be.

“Are we going to tell them tomorrow?” Hokuto asked, letting the light disappear again before he lifted his legs up on the bed and faced Taiga who was leaning against the wall. The older one could only shrug his shoulders though as a reply.

“I am not sure what the right thing to do is anymore.”

“Jesse and Shintaro have become best buddies, Kochi and Juri finally seem to get along too and we, well we are also making progress?”

Taiga couldn’t hide a teasing smile on that choice of words, because there had been no night in which Hokuto hadn’t stayed in Taiga’s room for the past week, but that also made Taiga realize something else and he moved closer to the other one.

“After we go back to our clan you will come and visit for the first time in a few weeks, but we don’t have any guest rooms like you have.” Some weeks ago Taiga would have still referred to them as cells, but at least they gave him and Hokuto the privacy they needed at the moment.

“So where are we going to stay?”

“We will most likely prepare some rooms in the upper circle in a different building, but you can stay in my room too if you want? Especially if we tell them about us.”

On that thought Hokuto bit his lip, but Taiga immediately took the other one’s hand. “We don’t have to of course if you feel like it could disturb the progress we made between our clans.”

“That’s not it,” Hokuto replied and Taiga tilted his head on his guilty expression. “I just realized that after all this time you still don’t know my room.”

This time Taiga let out a chuckle on the other one’s worries and lifted his finger to poke him against the forehead. “Then you know already where you have to take me the next time I come to the Mi-Clan.”

The excitement in Taiga’s voice made Hokuto smile and he immediately nodded, but then his look turned worried again.

“If we tell Juri and the others about me having the light tomorrow then I fear Juri might think there is no need to actually get closer to the Rei-Clan. I know it might be a selfish request, but could we wait until we visited your clan at least once?”

“I totally agree,” Taiga said and Hokuto seemed more than relieved to hear that. “After the bond between both clans have strengthened enough I think we can tell them.”

“I really hope it will all go well,” Hokuto said before he got up from the bed, making Taiga look at him in confusion.

“Aren’t you staying?”

“I thought you might want to get ready for tomorrow?” Hokuto asked, but Taiga shook his head.

“It’s not like there is a lot to pack or to prepare and I’d prefer to spend my last night here with you,” Taiga let out a bit sheepish.

When Hokuto seemed to hesitate Taiga hurried to stand up and walk up to the other one. “But if you are busy with preparations or anything, then don’t worry.”

From one moment to the other Hokuto’s hesitation vanished and he hurried to form a smile. When he lifted his hand to the other one’s face it almost seemed to Taiga as if he wanted to apologize. “I will always be there as long as you want me to.”

“Oh such deep words,” Taiga teased the other one, but took the invitation when Hokuto slowly pulled him closer into a passionate kiss.

It was still questionable what the others would think about their relationship, not to forget that they might already guessed parts of it, but all Taiga could hope for was that things wouldn’t fall apart with their clans knowing. He wasn’t sure how their bond and also the light would get affected in case they would return to being enemies once more, not that Taiga would let that happen, after all he would also always be there as long as Hokuto needed him to be!

***

They didn’t plan on leaving early so Taiga didn’t bother getting up when he woke up. It still felt as if it was in the middle of the night anyway, not that he could tell with the thick walls around him. When he turned around he realized that Hokuto wasn’t lying next to him.

“You were busy after all,” Taiga said to himself and turned on his back, yet he couldn’t fall asleep again. Not knowing what else to do he got up and made his way outside the cave. They were allowed to walk around the upper circle freely since Shintaro and Kochi had arrived, but Taiga knew of course that there were guards around so he wouldn’t try to walk around too obvious. He made it towards the cave where they had brought him right at the start. The special training room where everything had turned upside down at the beginning and Juri almost caused the light to disappear completely.

“You have all changed since then,” Taiga whispered while walking slowly through the room with a nostalgic smile. He felt like he and Hokuto could really bring a difference to their clans and he would try his best to use the light to bring peace between them.

It was still dark outside and so he hurried to the cave with the regular training room, feeling as if he needed to visit all the places once more before they left. On his way though he saw the entrance to another cave, a place he hadn’t entered until now and he could hear voices and see the dim light of some torches inside. Slowly he made it to the entrance of the cave, but he didn’t dare to step inside without knowing if he was allowed to, but now he could hear the voices more clearly.

“I don’t think it would be wise for all of us to go at first. You should head to the Rei-Clan first and after Taiga comes back here once Jesse and I will join you.”

Juri’s voice and the reply he could hear next was obviously from Hokuto, yet Taiga felt as if he shouldn’t let them know that he was listening.

“I will make sure to remember as much as I can from their place when I come back.”

“Does it seem to you as if he wants to tell his clan members without telling us?”

At first Taiga thought it was just a normal conversation about their visits from now on and he had already made a step back to not disturb them, but that last question made him halt.

“We decided not to tell any of the clan members. Only after we all visited the Rei-Clan and he feels safe with both sides he wants to tell you.”

“Smart, not that it will change anything. We have to time everything well. If the Rei-Clan members find out too soon that you have the light as well they might get suspicious and won’t let Taiga come back to our clan, which would make our plan fail.”

Now Taiga didn’t even think about leaving anymore. All he did was moving forward. He didn’t want to hear more as his heart already started beating faster and his eyes started burning, but he forced his legs to keep moving deeper into the cave with every single toxic word he heard.

“How well can you control it by now?”

“Quite good,” Hokuto said and Taiga almost gasped when he saw the light reflecting on the walls of the cave. He felt angry, not even sure if he was shocked, but the most he felt was betrayed. His hands started shaking when he clenched them into fists, but he would just keep walking.

“This worked sooner than I thought. I guess it was really a good plan to make you get closer to him.”

How had he been that stupid? He should have known that Juri wouldn’t just give up his radical training method without having some other back up plan to get his hands on the light. Maybe his intentions hadn’t been to make Hokuto get the light directly, but now they have gotten even more than they could have hoped for.

“Make sure that you don’t let anyone know by accident about the light when you visit them,” Juri added, Taiga now right around the corner of where they were standing. He could already see Hokuto’s back and get a glimpse of the light in his hand vanishing again. Never had he thought that he could feel more hatred towards him than he did when they started hurting him, but here fate taught him a brutal lesson.

“I will make sure to talk to Taiga about everything later.”

“You will never get the chance to talk to me ever again,” Taiga confronted him as he stepped into the center of the cave. Hokuto swirled around with wide eyes, while Juri looked more annoyed than shocked.

“Taiga, wait, let me explain,” Hokuto tried to sooth the other one, but when he made a step towards the older one, Taiga lifted his arm, the light shining so bright in his palm that the others had to lift their arms and take a few steps back, unable to see.

“There is no need to explain anything. You said you trusted me,” Taiga hissed towards them, forcing them to retreat towards the wall of the cave. Hokuto could of course counter the attack, but he didn’t seem willing to do so.

He lowered his arm with a hateful look towards Hokuto, trying hard to not let the tears of anger flow over. “So now I am telling you that I don’t trust you anymore. We are leaving tonight and you better hear my warning right now. If the Mi-Clan ever dares to get close to the Rei-Clan ever again I will make you regret it.”

Taiga’s warning was clear and Hokuto seemed unable to move or reply as all he was doing was giving Taiga the most hurt look he had ever seen on his face, yet all he wanted to do was yell at him that he wasn’t allowed to look that hurt as it was Taiga who got betrayed.

It was Juri though who wouldn’t let things end this way when Taiga wanted to retreat from the cave, because no matter how angry he was for now all he wanted to do was leaving the Mi-Clan’s territory. When Juri pulled out his throwing knives it was Hokuto who tried to stop him, but of course he wasn’t fast enough and one of the knives made it right towards Taiga. Without even knowing exactly why he hadn’t dodged he let it hit his shoulder, making Hokuto hiss as well.

Even Juri seemed a bit taken aback when Taiga pulled the throwing knife out without any hesitation. When he then pulled up his sleeve and brought the knife down on his own forearm, Hokuto gasped.

“What are you doing? You know you can’t hurt me with that,” Hokuto yelled at the other one, but didn’t dare to get closer.

When Taiga was done he threw the knife to the ground and lifted up his arm for Hokuto to see the word on it clearly:

TRAITOR

“Trust me I never wished more that I could hurt you through this. I shouldn’t have erased those words from your arm in the first place,” Taiga said in a low voice, finally losing the fight against his own tears.

“Okay, enough,” Juri said and pulled another knife out, stabbing Hokuto with it on the thigh, making him scream out and fall to his knees. Taiga was forced to his knees as well, but when he started chuckling both of them looked at him confusion. “Are you losing it now?”

Juri’s question made him laugh out even louder this time before he moved his hand to his thigh and let the light heal the wound. When he got up while Hokuto wasn’t able to, Juri gasped.

“You can heal yourself without healing him?”

“I guess a few secrets still remained,” Taiga said cynical, almost laughing at Hokuto for keeping something unimportant like this a secret from Juri compared to all the other secrets he spilt.

With his next move Taiga also erased the word on his forearm and the wound on his shoulder while Hokuto kept his wounds.

“Why are you hesitating? You have the light too, heal yourself.”

Hokuto gave Juri a questioning look, but when the other one nodded, Hokuto put his hand up to his shoulder…but nothing happened. The confusion on Hokuto’s look made Taiga laugh as loud as never before while his tears just didn’t want to dry the way his heart had just dried of trust.

“Right what you deserve,” Taiga spit at them and of course Juri knew that he had to attack now if he wanted to turn the tables as he had wounded Hokuto too much for him to be able to fight. Unfortunately he could barely drew another knife before Taiga dashed to the front and let the light attack with full power as he stretched his arm out and let the shockwave between them take Juri off his feet. The impact was so heavy this time that Juri hit the stone wall head first and crumbled unconsciously to the ground.

“Please stop,” Hokuto begged when Taiga approached Juri, but looked over to Hokuto on his words.

“Why should I?”

“Because you might also lose the light if you don’t.”

The irony in Hokuto’s words made Taiga laugh again and he walked up to him with the weirdest mix of emotions showing on his face. He was feeling furious inside, yet all he could show were tears.

“Your begging is as fake as your comfort,” Taiga let out disgusted by the other one’s try to help Juri while he had played Taiga all this time, knowing that in the end he would be the one hurt the most.

His direct words seemed to hurt Hokuto more than any physical wound could, but what else had he expected? Before Taiga could actually keep throwing accusations at Hokuto they heard people shouting outside, so his last attack hadn’t gone unnoticed, but he was sure that Kochi and Shintaro were also up, so if they wanted to leave then this was their best chance.

“If you have learned even a tiny bit out of your betrayal then you won’t stop us from leaving. If you do, then be prepared to meet me on the battlefield as your worst enemy.”

When Hokuto seemed still too shaken by the whole situation Taiga turned around and got ready to fight his way out of the Mi-Clan.

“Taiga?”

He shouldn’t stop. Never should he listen to him again and never should he feel any kind of emotion about him sounding that hurt, yet he stopped once more and faced Hokuto.

“Choose your words wisely. They might be the last ones you can ever tell me.”

Hokuto hadn’t much time to sort out his thoughts or even discuss anything as he knew that Taiga wouldn’t listen to a long apology or any excuses, so he took another shaking breath before he looked up at the other one.

“I won’t ask for forgiveness, I know how much I have hurt you. But I meant what I said. I trust you and I really wanted to be there for you.”

Maybe Taiga should have listened to their connection a bit more, but his emotions were leading him away from that painful part in his heart. Their connection wasn’t only physical they had learned that by now, but Taiga felt as if Hokuto could even lie to him this way so he ignored the hurt he could feel, the pain Hokuto would have to live with from now on and for once Taiga decided to be selfish and he turned away from the other one, already leaving when he whispered his last words towards him, knowing through the sting he could feel in his chest that he had heard him.

“I don’t want you in my life anymore.”


	9. Forgiveness

It wasn’t the best place Taiga could waste his time at, but for years he was coming to their river when he was troubled. Yet it reminded him of the reason he was troubled.

“Here you are,” Kochi was heard as he made his way down to the small grass field next to the river at the Rei-clan. “Are you even sleeping here, because no one actually knows where you are all the time?”

“Does it matter? It’s calm, right? No fights with the Mi-clan, not even any wounds showing up, so there is nowhere I have to be.”

Kochi sighed before he dropped next to Taiga on the grass. “It’s not like our only purpose is fighting, you know that.”

“Then why do I feel like I have not a single purpose left to live for?”

“You tell me?” Kochi said, knowing Taiga well enough to understand that he needs to overcome this by himself.

“Should I have refused to go with them in the first place?”

“Difficult question. They wouldn’t have easily stopped trying to get their hands on the light. Now they might have the light or maybe they don’t. But whatever is going to happen from now on will show us if the light favors us or them.”

“What if the light actually showed itself to us to show us that it’s not about us and them?”

It was difficult to address this topic, but no matter how betrayed he felt there was still this part inside of him, hoping against all hope that the clans could live in peace again one day, maybe even break that wall between them and reunite the Akari Clan.

“I think it’s up to them this time,” Kochi replied honestly. “If the light stayed with them I fear they might not have learned their lesson, but if it has withdrawn itself then maybe there is a chance for them to learn out of their mistakes?”

“Are we supposed to forgive them?”

“Speaking as a clan? Yes, I think when it comes to political questions there is a lot you can forgive and renew. When it comes to personal matters…”

Kochi patted the other one on the shoulder before he got up with a faint smile. “That is totally up to the people involved.”

So in the end it was up to him if he wanted to forgive or not, but he was too proud to make the first step and why should he? He hadn’t been the one to mess things up, yet he was the one feeling restless, but maybe that feeling wasn’t completely his own.

***

After two weeks of silence between the clans Taiga had become so restless that he was close to actually taking a look at the Mi-clan territory if they were coming up with something, but again he refused to give in to that stupid temptation.

The word restless couldn’t actually describe his situation anymore. The others started worrying for him as he could barely sleep, wasn’t able to concentrate over the day and he even lost weight. But as difficult as it was to explain, he felt that he didn’t suffer alone. He wasn’t the cause for his messed up daily life. But then after another sleepless night all the chaos in his mind was gone. It felt weird as he felt like something was missing inside of him, like an empty space he couldn’t explain.

He should feel relieved, maybe even happy. If the connection between them had been established by the light then it might have cut their ties now that the Mi-Clan had betrayed the light once more after all these centuries. But now his sleepless nights were caused by that lost connection. What if it wasn’t the light which had cut their bond? All the what if questions gave him a headache each and every night for several days and he felt stupid for hoping that something would show up. A cut, a painful sting, anything! But there was nothing…

In the middle of another sleepless night he suddenly felt a familiar pain on his forearm. At first it was not more than a light tingling and it didn’t feel like all the other times Hokuto got hurt. Something felt different. It was more of a burning feeling, slowly growing and Taig sat up, hurrying to turn on the oil lamp on his night stand. His arm was burning up, but he didn’t seem to have a fever. It was only his forearm that seemed affected and slowly he panicked as the tingling feeling slowly turned into a burning pain. Instead of cuts, a lot of thin lines engraved themselves into Taiga’s arm all at once. When the pain got too much to bear he hurried out on the corridor, but he didn’t make it far before he was forced on his knees and started screaming in pain.

Shintaro and Juri soon dashed down the corridor towards him while Taiga covered his forearm with his hand and shouted at them to get him cold water. They dragged him to the showers and hurried to fill a bucket with water and Taiga put his arm inside just to realize that it wouldn’t help.

“What the hell are you doing,” Taiga shouted at the one who couldn’t hear him. Giving up on the cold water, Taiga pulled his arm out again and finally the pain seemed to get less and he tried hard to get his erratic breathing back under control.

“Holy shit,” Shintaro said as he took a closer look at Taiga’s arm when the older one removed his shaking hand as the thin lines finally had stopped moving.

HELP ME

The words weren’t cut in his skin like before, they were burned in it! Taiga immediately asked for the light to heal the wound for him and the light appeared, but to their astonishment the burn marks wouldn’t disappear even with the light.

“Am I the only one who finds this weird?” Shintaro asked while Kochi was already trying to figure out what was going on.

“So the first possibility is that this is a trap. He can’t hurt himself, right? So it wasn’t him who wrote this, but someone else. So that would mean the light left them after all and they try to lure you back,” Kochi explained and it was the most logical explanation at the moment.

“But why can’t I heal myself then?” Taiga asked a bit irritated.

“Maybe burn marks won’t heal?” Shintaro asked and shrugged his shoulders. “There is so much we still don’t know, right? For example if someone cuts your arm off, will Hokuto’s arm also be cut off? And will you be able to reattach it?”

“Thank you Shintaro for this unnecessary question,” Kochi interfered. “The better question is what do we do now?”

“I will go there and find answers,” Taiga said confident, to the other two’s surprise.

“Are you sure, you know it is most likely a trap,” Kochi said.

“And yet it shows that they lost the light so we are stronger than them. Get our men ready, we are leaving at dawn.”

After all this time worrying if he made the right decision Taiga was back to only feeling rage. How could they dare use Hokuto like this again? How could Hokuto let them use him again like this? This time he would teach them a lesson and it would be their final one if they didn’t learn from their mistakes! Taiga had given them a chance, he wasn’t sure if he was willing to give them a second one!

***

As much as Taiga wanted to storm the Mi-clan without any warning, it was Kochi this time who stopped him and in the end Taiga, Kochi and Shintaro went to the clan’s gates first. Their men were waiting hidden behind the hills around the area. They didn’t care if the Mi-clan had already noticed that they were planning an attack or not, for now they would talk, but if it was indeed a trap then they would regret it!

It surprised them all when the gates opened and Juri and Jesse walked up to them without any guards backing them up from the walls.

“What do you want?” Juri asked, obviously annoyed by their visit.

“Where is Hokuto?” Taiga asked and stepped to the front.

“He left,” Jesse replied and he seemed actually worried for his friend.

“Why would he leave?” Kochi asked and they didn’t miss Jesse’s look towards Juri who let out an annoyed sigh.

“None of your business.”

“I fear it is,” Taiga let out and pulled up his sleeve, revealing the burn mark. There was no need to keep secrets again and make their talk complicated. All he wanted were answers.

Jesse was the one to walk up to him on seeing the burn mark with a worried expression. “Do you think something happened to him?”

“He can’t do this to himself,” Taiga shot back more annoyed than he wanted to be. “You did this, didn’t you?”

Ha?” Juri replied as Taiga looked at him. “Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s not always me.”

“Burning him has no use,” Jesse let out on which Taiga raised an eyebrow.

“Jesse!” Juri said warningly, but this time the younger one shook his head. “This is something we shouldn’t keep a secret and you know that. It’s your fault that he left in the first place.”

Juri only rolled his eyes and waved his hand on which Jesse turned back to the Rei-Clan members. “We actually found out that even if he gets burned, the marks won’t appear on your skin. We tried it out while you were here.”

“You are unbelievable,” Kochi scolded them and Juri was ready to explode, but he held back knowing that a fight wouldn’t lead to anything.

“So wait that means even if someone burns him or me, the marks won’t show?” Taiga asked, staring back at Kochi in confusion when Jesse nodded.

“Give me that torch,” Taiga said towards Jesse who looked a bit confused, but handed him the torch he was holding. Taiga handed it to Kochi who knew what he was up to, but he didn’t look too happy about it.

“Are you sure?” His friend asked, but when Taiga held out his hand towards him he put the torch right under it and kept a tight grip on Taiga’s wrist so that he wouldn’t pull away.

Even Juri’s eyes grew wide in shock when Taiga let himself get burned. With a hiss he pulled his hand free after he had already suffered serious burns, forcing himself to not pull back too soon. Not losing any time he asked for the help of the light and as he had expected the light appeared.

“It healed,” Shintaro let out in disbelief as the burn mark vanished like all other wounds.

“Does this one not heal?” Jesse asked, pointing at his forearm.

“No it doesn’t…” Taiga let out, lost in his thoughts for a moment. Finally the anger he carried all this time disappeared and he was able to think straight for the first time in weeks. “This is no wound.”

“What?” Kochi asked.

“This is a real call for help,” Taiga said, alarmed by the time they had wasted thinking this was another trap set by the Mi-Clan. “Hokuto is asking for help, that’s why the light can’t erase it.”

“Wait, Taiga where are you going?”

“I don’t know, I think I just have to trust our connection,” he let out, not even knowing how much of their connection was left. Now his anger was directed against himself. Why hadn’t he realized it sooner? All the restless nights, the lack of appetite and then the numb feeling. None of it had been his, it was all coming from Hokuto and he had turned a blind eye on him. But Taiga was sure that Hokuto knew that after his betrayal Taiga wouldn’t come back no matter what, so maybe once more it was the light giving him a hint this time that a second chance was indeed needed.

“I will head back and send the men to search for him,” Shintaro said.

“Did you plan an attack?” Juri asked, crossing his arms to his chest, but to his surprise Kochi walked up to him with an annoyed expression.

“First of all, yes we did, because after your first betrayal we had all right to think that this was a trap, second thanks to you we were able to positioning our men at the best strategical paths after all you taught me about them, remember?”

Juri didn’t seem happy to get reminded of his mistake back then, but maybe for once he had indeed get carried away and had talked that openly to Kochi, because he wanted to and not because it was a tactical idea.

“And third,” Kochi said and dared to step right in front of Juri, making the others tense a bit and seconds later they all gasped when Kochi dared to push Juri to the back, making the latter almost lose his balance. “For once in your life would you stop being so arrogant and care for your friends? You caused all of this and we just told you that Hokuto didn’t just leave, but that he is in trouble. He is calling for help and yet you don’t care. Get your priorities right!”

Kochi left them all staring open mouthed after him until Jesse finally dared to move again and tapped Shintaro on the shoulder.

“I will get some men and help you,” Jesse let out.

Taiga nodded gratefully, but when Jesse turned back to the gates, Juri blocked his way. This time it was Taiga though who walked up to the other one.

“If you think you didn’t do anything wrong from the start, then go ahead and stand your arrogant ground all by yourself. But Hokuto needs our help and if just a single person in your clan cares for him then you will let them help.”

It wasn’t clear if Juri had fallen silent, because he was close to exploding or if he really didn’t know what to reply to Kochi or Taiga, but to their surprise he stepped out of Jesse’s way so that the younger one could finally rush back to get some of the warriors to help searching.

“When did he leave?”

First Taiga feared that Juri wouldn’t even answer him.

“Five days ago at dawn he was gone.”

“Did he take anything with him?” Kochi asked, but Juri shook his head.

“Five days ago was when I felt like our connection had vanished,” Taiga realized.

“In five days he could have ended up who knows where,” Kochi realized.

“Take our men and search the area back to the Rei-Clan. I am not sure if he would actually try and get into our territory, but who knows what is going on in his head right now.”

There was indeed that small possibility, yet Taiga thought that if he had really tried to make it to the Rei-Clan he would have actually walked right to the front gates. “Shintaro, tell Jesse to take the men from the Mi-Clan to search the territory away from their clan with easily accessible paths. If he just walked straight into the mountains we won’t know which direction he has taken anyway.”

Kochi and Shintaro nodded and when the younger one dashed after Jesse, Kochi waited for Taiga to follow him, but the other one didn’t move. He stopped and tilted his head. “Aren’t you coming with us?”

“I need a moment alone. Let me try and focus on our connection, maybe I can somehow lead the way like that, but for now I don’t know how much time it will take so don’t waste time waiting!”

Kochi understood that he needed some time to organize his thoughts so he left first and Taiga turned back to Juri once more, not sure if there was anything left to say. Not wanting to waste time he turned around and started walking away.

“He asked me to trust you.”

Juri’s words made him stop immediately, but he didn’t turn around. For a moment Juri remained silent, but Taiga patiently waited, because he knew that he wasn’t done yet. Not that those words would come out easily, especially from Juri.

“I was the one to come up with the plan to stop the radical training and make you feel more comfortable inside our clan, yet it was Hokuto who immediately asked for permission to be the one to get closer to you. I agreed, but told him he had to report back to me. He reported everything, at least I thought he did.”

Now Juri had gotten Taiga’s full attention and he turned back to the other one with a serious expression.

“He told me how you carelessly gave him details about your clan, but I didn’t know that he had done so as well. He told me that you healed his arm, yet he never told me that you can heal yourself without healing him. He told me that he had finally gotten the light, yet he never told me that he got it through helping you.”

“Then how come that you know all of this now?” Taiga asked neutral.

“After you had left he finally told me. The night you overheard our conversation he had made me promise that we will try and work things out peacefully and just in case your clan would find out about Hokuto having the light and try to attack we would counter attack.”

“Then why did you tell Hokuto that your plan would fail if I didn’t come back to the Mi-Clan?”

Juri stayed silent after that question, but it somehow didn’t make Taiga angry. It was Juri’s expression which showed him that maybe this time it had been Taiga who had made a really big mistake.

“He had told me about his feelings for you at that conversation and that he wanted to try everything possible to make you come back to the Mi-Clan as a friend and not as an enemy. So I promised him to try and keep the peace for both of you.”

Taiga felt as if he had been punched right in the face. Why had things turned out this chaotic? Why had he not let Hokuto explain when he had asked him to? Of course the betrayal was still there, it hadn’t been erased. The Mi-Clan had a back-up plan involving another war. Hokuto had lied to Taiga and he had played along Juri’s plan, giving information about the light to him, yet the betrayal Taiga had been hurt over the most had never happened!

Hokuto falling in love with him hadn’t been a lie! His feelings had been real, his wish of being there for Taiga had been the truth and here Taiga had ignored all the signs that had been piercing his chest at that time.

“Then why did he leave?” Taiga asked in a lower voice this time, not feeling confident anymore to even find Hokuto.

“He wasn’t able to cope with the situation. After you had left he had immediately begged the clan to not try and attack you and that he would try everything possible to get the light back himself, but of course he wasn’t able to. He started shutting everyone out. He hid in his room, wouldn’t eat or sleep and then one day he was just gone.”

Everything connected so much better now, but being able to put the pieces together made Taiga feel even more stupid and he slowly shook his head. “Why did things turn out this way?”

The sun finally made it over the last high peaks of the mountain range and that was when Taiga realized how much time they had wasted talking.

When he made a few big steps towards the other one Juri made a step back, obviously fearing that Taiga would yell at him or even attack him, but none of that was on Taiga’s mind for now.

“Thank you,” Taiga let out, making Juri look at him out of words. “For being honest for once.”

Before Juri had the chance to reply, Taiga turned around and dashed away from the clan. He had to find the lost connection between them. Not that it had completely vanished, Taiga was sure of that by now. All that was happening was Hokuto suppressing the connection, maybe trying to deny Taiga access to his emotions, but there was one more option which made Taiga sped up, even though he wasn’t exactly sure where he was going, but his legs just kept moving.

Another unknown part about their connection he never wanted to learn about. Could one die without the other one? Just that one thought kept him busy for such a long time that he suddenly found himself in unknown territory. Or was it? He slowed down and kept walking as if he knew exactly where he was going. He hadn’t walked this path alone before, but he had been lead through it once.

Taiga’s heart kept hammering against his chest as he heard a familiar sound and he kept making his way through the thick forest until the place he had been lead to through their faint connection came into sight. The Kihin!”

The sun got reflected on the silver surface so brightly that it was hard for Taiga to see clearly, but then he gasped as he spotted Hokuto at the river bank on the other side of the river. The other one was lying on his back and as much as Taiga could tell from this distance he wasn’t moving.

“Sure you had to choose the most dramatic spot,” Taiga hissed while he got out of his shoes and shirt before he made it into the water.

The stream was way stronger than before even though the weather was nice and it wasn’t raining, neither was there any wind. But it almost felt as if the Kihin was trying to challenge them.

Taiga cursed at the river for making it so difficult for him to get to the other side. When he made it closer to the river bank he realized another annoying factor. The water level was lower than before and he had trouble reaching the upper rocks of the river bank.

“Damn it,” Taiga cursed as he clawed one hand on the best rock he could somehow get a grip on. He tried to pull himself up, but failed several times. “Hokuto, if you cause so much trouble then at least make up for it, would you?” Taiga shouted up at the river bank while he tried once more to somehow pull himself up on the slippery surface.

“I am talking to you! Don’t ignore me!” Taiga’s shouting wasn’t only because he really needed help to get up, but because he was worried that he was too late. What if Hokuto couldn’t hear him anymore? What if he never got the chance to talk things through? “HOKUTO!”

When his hand slipped again and he was going to fall back into the river a hand on his wrist stopped his fall halfway and with wide eyes he looked up. He let himself get dragged up on the river bank and he kept staring at the other one in disbelief. There he was. Sitting next to him as if this was just another day they had gone swimming in the river.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Taiga finally let without any outrights, but Hokuto didn’t even look up at him. He sat back and kept staring at the river as if this was the only thing he had done for the past week and taking a closer look at him Taiga could even believe that, because the same as him Hokuto had lost a lot of weight. How much had he been suffering on his own? “Hokuto, I asked you something.”

“Will it change anything if I tell you?”

So broken, so empty. Never had Taiga heard the other one this ready to give up.

“If you think it won’t change anything, then why did you send me this?” Taiga asked and showed the other one his forearm. Hokuto gasped and took the other one’s forearm in his hands. Taiga could feel how his hands were shaking, but that intense reaction made him feel relieved, because finally Hokuto seemed to have snapped out of his numb state.

“But I didn’t...I…” Hokuto looked at his own arm in a loss of words as there was no wound visible and it was clear that he hadn’t hurt himself to send this message to Taiga.

“I think our connection is stronger than we both thought until now,” Taiga explained.

“If our connection keeps hurting both of us then I don’t want it anymore,” Hokuto let out.

Another empty look towards the river made Taiga realize why Hokuto had subconsciously sent this message to him, but while he had thought about this possibility it made his heart ache so badly realizing that he was right. No wonder that Hokuto had tried so hard to break their connection.

“You were wondering if you killed yourself, if I died too, didn’t you?”

It was so obvious now, the pain written all over the other one’s face. The thought made sense, because if he killed himself it would be the same as hurting himself and Taiga wouldn’t be affected, but the small part warning him about the possible outcome that he could accidentally hurt or even kill Taiga had saved them both.

“I’m sorry.”

After everything they have done to each other, after all the fights, all the pain and all the betrayals, it was the very first time Hokuto spoke such honest words.

“I’m sorry for hurting you. For letting the others hurt me to hurt you. For being too much of a coward to say no to Juri’s stupid ideas.”

Taiga let him keep going with his apologies, because he knew that Hokuto had to finally get the burden off his heart and with every single word Taiga’s heart also finally felt lighter again.

“I’m sorry for betraying you. For hurting your feelings...for falling in love with you…”

The silence that fell between them was the heaviest they had ever shared and it took a felt eternity for Taiga to understand the meaning of Hokuto’s words.

“Please tell me this is not all a set up again,” Taiga let out in a low voice, unable to trust the other one that easily, even though that was all he wanted. Not to forget that Juri had told him the same before, but he needed to make sure that Hokuto meant what he said.

It was the bitter chuckle Hokuto let out that made a shiver run down Taiga’s spine. “I feel like I didn’t even understand how much I have hurt you. Realizing that you can never trust my words again made me realize that I had a chance to change things and yet I threw it away just for the sake of the light.”

With slightly shaking hands Taiga reached out for the other one, taking Hokuto’s hand in his to get the other one’s attention and get him out of his self-destructive state.

“I was told something really important recently,” Taiga explained. “Forgiving for the sake of political peace was easily achieved to restore a calm life for everyone involved. Forgiving a personal betrayal depends on the people involved.”

Hokuto seemed to understand that better than anyone else, yet he wasn’t sure if he should ever be forgiven.

“I am not saying that I will forget what you did, but that doesn’t mean that I am not willing to try again and Juri told me that your betrayal wasn’t exactly the way I thought it was.

“You talked to Juri? Did they attack you?”

Taiga immediately shook his head, trying to calm the other one down. Even hearing about Taiga knowing the truth, didn’t seem to make Hokuto feel any better.

“What if I betray you again?” Hokuto let out in a low voice, putting his free hand over Taiga’s forearm as if he felt guilty for the damage he had done without realizing.

“Then I have to choose once more if you deserve another chance or not.”

“I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”

“Then don’t,” Taiga replied and squeezed the latter’s hand while Hokuto brushed his hand over the words on Taiga’s forearm and again the light showed itself to Hokuto after he had lost it once.

With a gasp Hokuto realized that his light was able to erase the words on Taiga’s forearm and he looked up at the other one with wide eyes, but Taiga was only showing him a calm smile.

“You haven’t lost the light in the first place,” Taiga explained. “We both carried the light all this time and when we finally accepted that hurting each other wasn’t the answer the light finally showed itself to us. If I had realized it earlier that your feelings weren’t played then all of this wouldn’t have happened.”

“You had all the right in the world to walk away from me after what I did to you,” Hokuto said, knowing that he had to live with his guilt.

“This time I think I won the race, don’t you think?” Taiga said and Hokuto formed a shy smile on hearing that before he nodded.

“I guess instead of racing I just stood behind this time, giving up before trying.”

“That’s totally okay,” Taiga explained as he moved the other one’s hand up to his own cheek. “Because you know the winner gets to comfort the loser.”

An invitation Hokuto would definitely not decline and he didn’t give Taiga any time to even move before he found the other one’s lips with his own.

The hesitation they shared the first time was replaced by all the unspoken feelings they hadn’t been able to share with each other and it was the need for air which finally forced them to part.

“I’m sorry I fell in love with you.”

“You said that before,” Taiga replied with a light smile. “And that is nothing you have to be sorry about or I have to apologize too.”

All their problems wouldn’t be forgotten like this and they were sure that a lot of trouble between the clans would await them from now on as well, but at least this time they were determined to fight together and not against each other.

“Let’s hurry back before the clans keep looking for you for several days?”

“Let's keep this place a secret to as many people as possible or we won’t be able to meet here anymore,” Hokuto let out teasing before they hurried to get back to the other side of the river.

As the stream was stronger than before it was hard to reach the place they were usually getting out from and they ended up a bit more downstream at a steeper river bank.

Hokuto was the first one to reach it and he helped Taiga to not pass it and pulled him closer to the rocks.

“Let me get up first and help you out,” Hokuto suggested, but to his surprise Taiga formed a teasing smile and shook his head.

“No need for that I think.”

First Hokuto didn’t understand until he turned back to the river bank as someone stretched out his hand towards him. Hokuto formed a smile when seeing the other one, but Juri only rolled his eyes.

“You want help or not?”

“Totally,” Hokuto replied and stretched his arm out towards his friend.

When Hokuto and Juri helped Taiga up on the rocks Hokuto slipped and made a step to the side, hitting his foot on a sharp rock, resulting in a cut on the side of his ankle. “Damn it.”

Hokuto wanted to apologize to Taiga for causing an injury, but when he looked at the other one, Taiga gave him a confused look.

“What?”

Instead of replying, Taiga showed him his leg that should usually be affected by the injury, but there was nothing there.

“Please tell me this is something good?” Juri asked, rubbing his temples in confusion about the situation.

“I am sure it is,” Taiga let out with a smile. Their bond wasn’t the same as before anymore. The pain had made them realize the connection, yet it was a connection established on hate and fights. Now that they were on a path trying to fix a lost connection between the clans there was no need to remind them of all the pain anymore. This time their connection would help them find the right path for themselves and for the clans and eventually restore a lost balance and bring back the light to the entire world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally we are at the end and I really mean 'finally' bc this was planned as a 3K exchange fic and ended up being this. So sorry if the ending is a little bit too sudden, I know I could have kept writing for an eternity, but I hope you enjoyed the story^^


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